Jets co-produced by China and brazil have been put on China's domestic feeder airlines in batches, said sources with a Sino-Brazilian airplane manufacturer on Monday.

The Harbin Embraer Aircraft Industry Co. Ltd. (HEAI) has delivered its 7th ERJ145 regional plane to Jiangsu Subsidiary of China Eastern Airlines, which, as the second end user of the joint venture, has ordered five planes. Another four will be delivered by April 2006.

China Southern Airlines previously purchased six ERJ145 jets, which are in use in several domestic airlines centered around Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province.

Su Guoxin, president of the Jiangsu Subsidiary of Eastern Airlines, said the first ERJ145 will fly from Nanjing to Chongqing, Shijiazhuang, Zhengzhou and other cities.

The joint venture, Embraer, based in Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, was set up in January 2003. Its first plane took a successful maiden flight in December of the same year.

The ERJ145 is a new generation of feeder jet plane launched in1996 by the Embraer Company, headquartered in Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil. So far, more than 900 aircraft of this sort have been put into use.

Insiders say China's short-haul airlines account for only 12 percent of its total, much lower than the average 35 percent in the world's aviation market.

(Xinhua News Agency August 30, 2005)