China’s first domestically produced airliner has completed its first commercial flight, marking a milestone in the country’s decades-long effort to compete with Western rivals in the air.
China Eastern Airlines flight MU9191 from Shanghai “arrived smoothly” in Beijing just after 12:30 (04:30 GMT) on Sunday, about 40 minutes ahead of schedule, according to China’s state broadcaster CCTV.
Beijing hopes that the C919 commercial jet will challenge foreign models such as the Boeing 737 MAX and the Airbus A320. The first homegrown jet with massive commercial potential would also reduce the country’s reliance on foreign technology as ties with the West deteriorate. However, many parts still come from abroad.
President Xi Jinping hailed the project as a triumph of Chinese innovation, while state media trumpeted the plane as a symbol of industrial prowess and national pride. “In the future, most passengers will be able to choose to travel on large domestically produced aircraft,” said CCTV.
The C919 is the product of the state-backed Commercial Aviation Corp of China (COMAC), which began developing the jet 15 years ago.
The first COMAC C919 commercial flight is en route from Shanghai to Beijing. Follow China Eastern Airlines flight #MU9191 bee https://t.co/dXejOIm3qn pic.twitter.com/sfM5o55wEo
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) May 28, 2023
“Smooth, comfortable and memorable”
Footage showed passengers disembarking the plane and entering the terminal before several dozen staff and officials posed for photos during a short ceremony on the tarmac.
The flight “was extremely smooth, comfortable and memorable. I think I will remember this fondly for a while,” a male passenger told CCTV.
The broadcaster broadcast footage of the plane taking off over Shanghai Hongqiao Airport and said it had 130 passengers on board.
State media footage showed passengers gathered at Shanghai’s sunlit airport to admire the sleek white jet before boarding.
Passengers were given red boarding passes and a “themed meal” to commemorate the flight, CCTV reported.
Other footage showed passengers waving national flags and singing a patriotic song as a cake was cut during the flight.
“After generations of efforts, we have finally broken the West’s aviation monopoly and freed ourselves from the humiliation of ‘800 million shirts for one Boeing,'” the state-owned Beijing Daily wrote, referring to the early years of economic reform some 40 years ago. past. when China mainly manufactured low-value goods.
The C919 took off at 10:32 am (02:32 GMT) from Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport, where COMAC and China Eastern Airlines are headquartered, and landed at Beijing Capital Airport two hours later, flight tracker app Variflight showed. to see.
“I have faith in the plane. The flight went more smoothly than expected,” one of the passengers told CCTV as he disembarked.
‘New generation of aircraft’
The plane will return to Shanghai on Sunday and will make a longer return flight to the southwestern city of Chengdu on Monday.
Lv Boyuan, a 21-year-old student and aviation enthusiast, was at Shanghai airport on Sunday to fly to Chengdu, from where he was due to return the next day on the C919.
“I have been very much looking forward to his flight, especially as it is a new generation aircraft, unlike Boeing and Airbus equivalents, which have been around for a number of years,” said Lv.
The C919 made its first flight in 2017 after years of delays and has undergone numerous test flights since then.
State-backed China Eastern Airlines ordered five of the jets in March 2021. The first was taken delivery in December and expects to receive the rest this year.
Although the C919 is assembled in China, it relies heavily on Western components, including engines and avionics from companies such as General Electric Co, Safran SA and Honeywell International Inc.
‘Important milestone’
From Monday, the C919 will operate on China Eastern’s fixed route between Shanghai and Chengdu, CCTV reported.
State media hailed the handover of the first of the narrow-body jets to China Eastern as “an important milestone” for China’s aircraft industry.
Zhang Yujin, deputy general manager of COMAC, told Shanghai’s state-backed digital newspaper The Paper in January that the company had received about 1,200 orders for the C919.
Asia and China in particular are key targets for European manufacturer Airbus and its American rival Boeing, which want to capitalize on the growing demand for air travel from the country’s huge middle class.
Last month, Airbus announced it would double its production capacity in China by signing an agreement to build a second final assembly line for the A320 in Tianjin.
The first assembly site in the northern city opened in 2008 and produces four A320s per month. Airbus hopes to increase that to six per month before the end of the year.
The C919, China’s first domestically-made large passenger jet, completed its inaugural commercial flight on Sunday, marking its official entry into the civil aviation market. #C919 pic.twitter.com/7vYfHbeFdo
– China Xinhua News (@XHNews) May 28, 2023
Li Hanming, an independent expert on Chinese aviation, said most C919 orders were letters of intent from domestic customers. “For the C919, the domestic market is big enough,” said Li.
The international market is questionable given that neither European nor US regulators have approved the use of the aircraft, said Greg Waldron, Asia editor-in-chief of the industry publication FlightGlobal.
“Until this happens, major international markets will be closed to the C919,” he said.
The C919’s predecessor, the ARJ21, is a 90-seat short-haul airliner that entered commercial service in 2016 and is flown by major Chinese airlines and Indonesia’s TransNusa.
The use of the ARJ21 in Indonesia indicates that the international future of the C919 is mainly in the developing world, Waldron said.
COMAC is also developing a CR929 wide-body jet in cooperation with Russia.