'Made in China' aircraft receives additional orders for 100 units

Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac) has just received an additional order for 100 C919s from the country's second largest airline.

China Eastern signed a contract to buy 100 more C919 aircraft with Comac today (September 28). The value of the deal was not disclosed.

However, at list prices, the deal is worth about $9.9 billion. China Eastern’s order for 100 more C919s will be delivered between next year and 2031.

China Eastern currently owns a fleet of nearly 800 aircraft of all types and is the second largest airline in China. It is also the first airline to use Comac's C919 narrow-body aircraft from May 2023.

The Shanghai-based airline has purchased five C919s, three of which have been delivered. The remaining two are scheduled for delivery later this year. China Eastern currently uses the aircraft on its Shanghai-Chengdu route.

China Eastern Airlines C919. Photo: China News Service

At a recent event, Comac Chairman He Dongfeng said the company had received 1,061 orders as of early September. Last week, GallopAir, a new airline based in Brunei, announced it had signed a deal to buy 30 aircraft from Comac, including 15 C919s. This could also be seen as a major blow to Boeing, which has not received any narrow-body orders from Chinese airlines in recent years.

After 14 years of development, Comac was granted a certificate by China for the C919 aircraft at the end of September 2022. This narrow-body aircraft model has a maximum capacity of nearly 170 passengers and is considered to have the ambition to compete with China's Airbus and Boeing.

Beijing hopes the C919 will help reduce China's dependence on foreign technology. The government has set a target of a 10% domestic market share for the C919 by 2025. Before the C919, Comac produced China's first jetliner, the ARJ21. It has already taken orders for 775 of the planes.

Tu Anh (according to Reuters)

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