China Eastern Airlines Corp and Xiamen Iport Group on Thursday signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement to deepen collaboration in passenger transport, air logistics and aircraft leasing.

Iport Group operates four airports across Fujian province - Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport, Wuyishan Airport, Fuzhou Changle International Airport and Longyan Guanzhaishan Airport.

According to the agreement, China Eastern will make Xiamen of Fujian province a key market as the city's aviation industry has been developing quickly.

One of the nation's busiest single runway airports, Xiamen Airport had a passenger volume of 27.41 million and cargo throughput of 330,000 tons last year.

As one of the nation's top three airlines, China Eastern also plans to take part in the construction of Xiamen's new airport to gain a bigger market share in the city. The new airport is designed to handle 45 million passenger trips per year and receive 85 million passenger trips annually.

China Eastern, which first established a presence in Xiamen in 1990, currently accounts for 10.7 percent of Xiamen Airport's passenger transport.

Operating a fleet of nearly 750 aircraft, China Eastern makes more than 130 million passenger trips to 1,150 destinations in 175 nations and regions across the world every year.