Sao Paulo, Apr 30 (IANS/EFE): Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer announced Monday a firm order by United Airlines to buy 30 E175 jets, with an option to buy another 40, a deal that - in total - would amount to $2.9 billion.

"With this order for the new enhanced E175 jet, we are delighted to reinforce and extend our long-standing partnership with United Airlines, which was the ERJ-145 launch customer back in 1996, known at that time as Continental Airlines," Paulo Cesar Silva, the president of Embraer Aviacao Comercial, said in a communique.

Continental Airlines, which in 2010 merged with United Airlines, during the 1980s bought the first Embraer aircraft, the EMB-120 Brasilia turboprop, and currently the new company has 38 Brazilian-made aircraft in its own fleet and those of regional partner United Express.

United Express will receive the 30 aircraft from this new sale, each of which is able to transport 76 passengers and the first of which is scheduled to be delivered in the first quarter of 2014.

More than 150 E175 aircraft are presently in the fleets of 12 airlines around the world and that model was characterized by experts as "ideal" for US regional flights.