Brazilian commercial jet producer Embraer looked to a bigger share in China's regional aviation market with a new contract to sell five EMBRAER 190 jets to China's Kunpeng Airlines signed on Tuesday.

The total list price of the contract came to 187.5 million U.S. dollars, and the first delivery is scheduled for 2008.

"We have always been confident in China's regional aviation market expansion, and this is an extremely positive sign in that direction," said Mauro Kern, executive vice president of the airline market with Embraer.

China will have 443 more regional jets in the next 20 years, while the share of regional jets in the country's total aircraft will go up to 26 percent from the current 12 percent, according to a report of the Everbright Securities last October.

The China Aerospace Industry Research Center forecast 5,300 to 5,500 regional aircraft will be needed globally in the next two decades.

Embraer, which now dominates the world's regional jet market together with Canada's Bombardier Inc., had delivered 33 aircraft to Chinese airlines by the beginning of June.

Kunpeng Airlines' general manager Zhang Pei said the deal with Embraer would benefit the two companies in their long-term cooperation.

A joint venture between China's Shenzhen Airline and the U.S. Mesa Air Group headquartered in north China's Xi'an, Kunpeng Airlines was set up last September and is operating more than 20 routes.

(Xinhua News Agency July 16, 2008)