The first two ERJ145 regional jet aircraft, a Sino-Brazilian product, are ready to be delivered to the client soon, according to sources with its manufacturer based in Harbin, capital of the northeastern Heilongjiang Province.

"Two ERJ145 aircraft will be delivered to the end user at the end of June and another four will be delivered in January 2005," said Wang Bin, general manager of the Harbin Aviation Industry Group.

All the first six ERJ145 jet aircraft were ordered by China Southern Airlines, he said.

"One aircraft passed flight trial last December and two more jets in the pipeline are being prepared for flight tests," said Wang.

The 50-seat turbofan aircraft are assembled by the Harbin-based Embraer Aircraft Industry Co., Ltd., a joint venture established in January 2003 between China's Hafei Aviation Industry Co., Ltd. and Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica S.A (Embraer) of Brazil, the world's fourth largest aircraft manufacturer that entered China in2000.

The joint venture was capable of producing up to 24 aircraft annually, and would produce eight jets in 2004, said Cui Xuewen, president of the joint venture and the Harbin-based Hafei Group.

The newly assembled ERJ145 is equipped with a Rolls Royce engine and has a range of 2,600 km, according to Cui. "It has a flight altitude of 11,000 meters and a cruising speed of 830 km per hour," said Cui.

The ERJ series are a new generation of turbofan regional jets that were first put on the market by Embraer in 1996. They have taken the lion's share of the global aviation market, with 700 aircraft already delivered to end users.

Market surveys conducted among Chinese airlines show regional aircraft enjoy rosy market prospects as more air routes have been opened between Chinese cities.

It is estimated that in the next 20 years, domestic demand for regional aircraft will exceed 600 and international market demand will surpass 4,000.

China presently has only 70-plus regional aircraft, less than 12 percent of its total number of commercial aircraft. International statistics show that regional aircraft take up an average 35 percent of the world civil aviation market.

(Xinhua News Agency May 27, 2004)