South Korea's export in the aerospace industry posted a double-digit growth for the first nine months of this year, a government report showed Thursday.

The export reached 1.84 billion U.S. dollars in the January-September period, up 15.8 percent from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

It was based on a survey of 38 major aerospace companies, which manufacture airplane engines, avionics systems and satellite components. They accounted for 99 percent of the country's aerospace export last year.

Export of aircraft surged 186.8 percent over the year to 383 million dollars in the January-September period. It was mainly attributed to the shipment of six and four T-50 trainer jets to Iraq and Thailand, respectively.

The T-50 advanced trainer and light combat aircraft was jointly developed by the Korea Aerospace Industries, South Korea's aircraft maker, and the U.S.-based defense giant, Lockheed Martin.

Shipment of aircraft parts was similar at 1.46 billion dollars in the period compared to the same period of last year.

Meanwhile, the domestic aerospace companies won 3.86 billion dollars of new contracts for the first nine months, up 11.5 percent from a year earlier.