‘Made in China’ plane officially takes off: Received hundreds of orders, cheaper than Airbus

Tram Ho

Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac), has received orders from seven leasing companies for 300 narrow-body C919s. The order came just over a month after the “Made in China” aircraft received flight certification.

The company made the announcement at China’s largest airshow event, China Aviation International, in Zhuhai on November 8. In addition, Comac also added that it has received orders for 30 ARJ21s – a 90-seat passenger plane intended for short-haul flights.

The C919 is an aircraft produced to compete with Airbus’ Boeing 737 and A320. This narrow-body aircraft model can accommodate up to 174 passengers, with a range of more than 5,500km. Currently, the C919 has been granted a flight qualification certificate from the Civil Aviation Administration of China in September, after 14 years of development.

However, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the European Space Agency (ESA) have so far not made any announcements about the approval of the C919. Typically, the FAA will review an aircraft design made in another country to certify it to be flown in the United States. However, it is not clear what the case for C919 will be as tensions between Beijing and Washington continue to escalate. Therefore, C919 has not yet been exported to other markets.

Máy bay 'Made in China' chính thức cất cánh: Nhận được hàng trăm đơn đặt hàng, giá rẻ hơn cả Airbus - Ảnh 1.

Comac said it plans to deliver its first passenger C919 to China Eastern Airlines later this year. The Shanghai-based airline has ordered four planes since May, priced at $99 million each. Meanwhile, according to Axon Aviation – a company that sells, leases and purchases commercial and private aircraft worldwide, the price of an Airbus A320 anchor is currently about 110 million USD.

Yang Yang, Comac’s vice president of sales and marketing, said that the company will plan the production capacity for the C919 after “full agreement with the airlines.”

At the event on November 8, C919 – China’s first narrow-body passenger jet, took off and flew in the sky. Attending the event was also the appearance of J-20 military aircraft and YU-20 tanker aircraft. C919 circled the cloudy sky over Zhuhai City, then landed in front of hundreds of attendees.

Although China’s economy has struggled to recover from the pandemic, in July a number of state-owned airlines including Air China and China Southern Airlines placed large orders of nearly 300 aircraft from Airbus. This is considered a big blow to Boeing – a manufacturer that has not been able to increase sales since 2018.

With the C919, China has high hopes for a “homegrown” passenger jet that will help it reduce its dependence on foreign technology, amid deteriorating relations with Western countries. However, most of the parts used to manufacture the C919 are imported from foreign manufacturers, including the engine, avionics, conditioning system, communications and equipment. landed.

Aviation is one of the modern technology industries that will be negatively affected when US-China relations become more strained. Some subsidiaries of Aviation Industry Corporation of China – a shareholder of Comac, have been included in the US Department of Commerce’s list of military-related Chinese enterprises.

China’s aviation industry is facing more restrictions on exports from the US, as Washington is concerned about the country’s military-civilian strategy to modernize its defense force by how to integrate civilian and commercial research with military parties. This is a central strategy in President Xi Jinping’s long-term vision of security and long-term development.

Refer to SCMP; WSJ

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Source : Genk