SINGAPORE: On Sunday, the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) produced the narrow-body C919, China’s answer to Airbus and Boeing’s passenger planes, conducted its first flight outside of China with a fly-by at the Singapore Airshow.
China has made significant investments in an effort to challenge the dominance of the two Western aircraft manufacturers in the global passenger sector.
This year, China has made a strong effort to expand the C919 and COMAC’s influence both nationally and globally. Only in China is the aircraft certified, and China Eastern Airlines launched the first of the current four C919s into service last year.
The aviation industry is keeping an eye on COMAC’s positioning as a competitive option as Airbus and Boeing struggle to increase production and satisfy demand for new aircraft, while Boeing faces a number of challenges.
Chinese media claimed in January that COMAC will invest tens of billions of yuan for the next three to five years to increase its capacity for producing C919. The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) validation process for the C919 was started in 2018, and China’s aviation authorities announced last month that it would continue this year.
At an air show preview on Sunday, the C919 was one of two commercial aircraft manufacturers flying with Airbus off the coast of Singapore. The air show is the largest in Asia. This year, Boeing has decided not to display any commercial aircraft.
The larger C919 twin-engine narrow-body aircraft with 158–192 seats, which competes with the well-known Airbus A320neo and Boeing 737 MAX 8 models, is one of COMAC’s two passenger offerings. The other is the ARJ21 regional jet.
SOURCE: DAWN NEWS
