China’s domestically produced passenger aircraft starts regular flights
The domestically produced Chinese passenger aircraft C919 has commenced regular flights on the Shanghai-Beijing route. The utilization of the aircraft on the country’s busiest domestic route is seen as a significant step for market acceptance.
According to an announcement from China Eastern Airlines, a C919 model aircraft is planned to be used on regular flights between Shanghai and Beijing for two weeks.
The C919 took off from Shanghai today and is set to land in Beijing in the evening, marking the commencement of its first regular commercial flights.
The use of the domestically produced passenger aircraft on the country’s busiest domestic route is considered a crucial step for market acceptance.
China Eastern had previously operated three C919 model aircraft on regular flights on the Shanghai-Chengdu route.
In 2021, China Eastern reached an agreement with the aircraft manufacturer, the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC), to purchase five C919 aircraft at $99 million each.
The first delivery of the C919 was made on December 9, 2022, and the aircraft conducted its first commercial flight on May 28, again between Shanghai and Beijing.
On September 28, 2023, China Eastern announced an agreement with COMAC to purchase an additional 100 C919 aircraft, scheduled for delivery between 2024 and 2031, making it the airline with the largest C919 fleet.
A COMPETITOR TO BOEING AND AIRBUS
China’s domestically produced first medium-range passenger aircraft, the C919, is seen as an equivalent to the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 model passenger aircraft.
With the entry of the most widely used single-aisle and narrow-body passenger aircraft type into the market, there is an evaluation that China could become a stakeholder in the passenger aircraft market dominated by American Boeing and European Airbus companies.
While the model developed by COMAC since 2008 aims to reduce the country’s dependence in this field, the C919 is not entirely domestically produced as critical components such as jet engines and flight control software are manufactured by U.S. companies like General Electric and Honeywell and assembled in China.
The company is also developing a wide-body long-range passenger aircraft model named “C929” alongside the medium-range narrow-body C919.
