The C919, the first medium-haul aircraft made by China, made its first public airing at the Zhuhai International Aviation and Aerospace Expo on Tuesday since being approved by regulatory authorities.
The state-owned Comac plane hurtled down the runway before circling in the cloudy sky above hundreds of spectators.
This device is the armed arm of the country to reduce its dependence on Airbus with its A320 and Boeing with its 737MAX. It is a short-medium range aircraft capable of transporting 158 to 174 passengers over 4,075 kilometers.
If it has not yet received clearance to fly from European and US regulators, it should be very present in the Chinese skies to the chagrin of its two competitors for whom the Middle Kingdom is highly strategic.
A threat and an opportunity for the western aviation industry
Comac said a few months ago that it had already received more than 800 orders from dozens of customers for the C919, including China Eastern, the country’s second-largest airline in terms of passenger numbers. It will be delivered in December for a first commercial takeoff scheduled for the first quarter of 2023.
During this Zhuhai fair, the manufacturer also announced an additional 300 orders for this device.
“They have a somewhat captive market where they can start selling, putting these aircraft into service, so we will be very attentive to what is happening with Comac,” Guillaume Faury, CEO of Airbus, stressed at BFM Business.
Comac could also benefit from Boeing’s setbacks in China. The 737 MAX has been grounded since 2019 after two accidents that claimed hundreds of lives. However, the US manufacturer said in July that the plane could get the green light from regulators this year to fly in Chinese skies again.
More than 1100 orders
But that progress has been slowed by lingering trade tensions between Beijing and Washington and the deadly crash this year in China of a Boeing 737-800, China’s worst civil aviation disaster with 132 deaths.
If the C919 is a medium-term threat to the European and American aircraft industry, it also represents an opportunity.
In fact, it is largely made up of Western parts, in particular its engines (the Leap-1C) made by the French-American consortium CFM International that brings together General Electric and Safran.
Source: BFM TV
