Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer will soon establish a service centre Nairobi, the company's commercial aviation President Paulo Cesar de Silva has said.

De Silva who was on a visit to Kenya said the centre will comprise of spare parts facility and workshops for after sale services. He said the facility will be set up in March and will serve as a regional service centre.

"We want to make sure our air crafts get the best service to maintain quality standards and performance in order to achieve the maximum value for our customers and increase our sales." De Silva said.

The company which already has presence in South Africa has its commercial air crafts. Currently 80 Embraer jets, most of them commercial air crafts are operating in Africa.

Kenya Airways has ordered 7 Embraer jets for use on intra-African routes, two have been delivered, while the remaining 5 are expected to arrive one unit each month until mid next year .

According to De Silva more than 70 per cent of African routes do not need large air crafts because passenger numbers keep fluctuating forcing some of the airlines to either cancel flights or fly half empty.

He said they are targeting the African markets with the E-190 jets to enable airlines cut costs associated with flying large air crafts with few passengers.

"With these 96 to 114 seater capacity E-190 commercial air crafts, airlines can increase their frequencies when need arises and at the same time fly at full capacity with fewer air crafts when passenger numbers are low," said

He said they exploring possibility of increasing their executive jet sales within the African market following the success of the commercial models.