Air China and China Southern Airlines will become the second and third Chinese carriers to fly China‘s homegrown COMAC C919 passenger jet when their first planes are delivered on Wednesday, state-run Chinese Central TV said. Chinese planemaker COMAC is trying to break into a passenger jet market dominated by Western manufacturers Airbus and Boeing that has been strained by aircraft shortages and a Boeing safety crisis.
The C919 entered domestic service in May last year with China Eastern, which flies seven of the jets domestically. China’s three big state-owned airlines have each ordered 100 C919s, and COMAC has said more than 1,000 have been ordered overall. China Southern last week said on social media platform Weibo that the first C919 would be integrated into its fleet by Wednesday.
The C919 seats up to 192 people and is in a similar category as Boeing 737 MAX and Airbus A320neo planes. COMAC this year has increased sales and production plans and has been marketing the C919 abroad, especially within Southeast Asia and also to growing aviation market Saudi Arabia.
UAE national carriers have increased their destinations to 606 globally, driven by strong tourism and business growth. Emirates, Etihad Airways, flydubai, Air Arabia, and Wizz Air Abu Dhabi lead this expansion. Etihad aims for 125 destinations by 2030 and has seen a significant rise in passengers and fleet size this year.
It is also developing a wide-body plane design. Zhongtai Securities last month said it expects COMAC to be able to produce 100 aircraft a year by around 2030, with total jets produced exceeding 1,000 by 2035. Airbus delivered 735 commercial aircraft in 2023. Industry sources caution that COMAC is a long way from making inroads internationally, especially without benchmark certifications from the United States or European Union – which COMAC is pursuing – or more efficient planes.
A forecast from aviation consultancy Cirium in May sees just under 1,700 C919 deliveries by 2042, giving the C919 around a 25 per cent market share compared to Boeing’s 30 per cent and Airbus’s 45 per cent. The first C919 delivery to a private airline is expected by year-end.
Shanghai-based Suparna Airlines, a subsidiary of China’s fourth biggest carrier Hainan Airlines which has 60 C919s on order, has said it eventually aims to fly only C919s. China will more than double its commercial airplane fleet by 2043 and will need 8,830 new planes, Boeing’s annual Commercial Market Outlook said in July.
