Deliveries are expected to begin in the second half of the year, the Brazilian company said in an e-mailed statement. CDB Leasing will lease the ERJ-190 jets to China Southern, China's biggest airline and the world's third-biggest, the statement said.
"The deal ratifies the trust and recognition of the Chinese company in our range of products and the prospects for growth in the nation's regional aviation market," the statement quoted Paulo Cesar de Souza e Silva, Embraer's executive vice-president for commercial aviation, as saying.
The deal follows a letter of intent signed between Embraer and CDC Leasing in December 2009, and signals that orders for commercial jets are slowly recovering after a tumble in the wake of the global economic recession of 2008-2009. The price tag for an ERJ-190 plane, which could seat as many as 122 passengers, is currently about $40 million.
Embraer's pipeline of firm orders plunged 23.5 percent to $15.3 billion in the third quarter of 2010 from $20 billion a year earlier and edged up only slightly from $15.2 billion in the second quarter of last year as airlines remain hesitant about the strength of the global economic recovery. (Reuters)
