Empresa Brasileira de Aeronáutica SA (Embraer) and its partners in China are working together to serve the booming market there for air cargo, Xinhua reports, quoting Embraer China Managing Director Guo Qing.

Mr Guo said the businesses of online commerce and logistics would drive demand, the Chinese government-run news agency reported last Thursday.

He said the Brazilian plane maker was in the process of adapting its E-Jet models of passenger aircraft for carrying freight.

His company expects to sell 700 of the freighter variants over the next 20 years, 240 of them in China, the report says.

Embraer has comprehensive arrangements for training pilots to fly its aircraft for its Chinese customers, Xinhua quotes Mr Guo as saying.