China's Comac Receives Over 300 New Orders for Home-Grown C919 Airliner After Zhuhai Air Show Demo
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After stunning attendees at the Air Show China in Zhuhai on Tuesday, the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac) has received hundreds of orders for its C919 airliner - China’s first large commercial passenger jet of indigenous design.
Comac received more than 330 orders for the narrow-body C919 on Tuesday, the company announced, increasing its total orders to 815 units for 28 customers. Most of the orders are from Chinese airlines including Chengdu, Jiangxi, China Southern, and China Eastern, but the list also includes Ireland-based GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS), the world’s largest airline leasing company.
Other airlines, such as the forthcoming Nigeria Air, have also expressed interest in acquiring C919s.
Ryanair CEO Eddie Wilson told Simple Flying recently that the Ireland-based bargain carrier would “welcome a third person to break the duopoly between Boeing and Airbus. We would hope that they (COMAC) will have a good aircraft, but that aircraft will have a lot of tried-and-tested Western components as well. And the question is, will that be reflected in the pricing of those aircraft or not?"
The narrow-body plane can seat up to 168 passengers and is anticipated to be a strong new competitor with the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320, two of the world’s best-selling passenger jet aircraft.
China’s Civil Aviation Administration gave the C919 its final airworthiness certification in late September, opening it up to commercial use, and hundreds of orders had already been placed by the time the International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, better known as AirShow China, opened in Zhuhai on Tuesday. The air show saw numerous new aircraft and weapons systems debut, but also saw the C919 give a 15-minute flight demonstration to attendees.
C919, the Chinese indigenous passenger airliner, competitor of Boeing 737 and Airbus A320, with the latest technologies, even the windows are 15% larger. It acquired the airworthiness certificate in September, the first airframe will be delivered to China Eastern in December. pic.twitter.com/OPJCsOraa6
— Governor General (@manchuxi) November 3, 2022
#C919 flying display @ #AirshowChina2022 #China #aviation #COMAC pic.twitter.com/yV0V3KdMws
— FATIII Aviation (@FATIIIAviation) November 8, 2022
Following the demonstration, orders for the C919 increased by two-thirds. The state-owned company said it had also received 30 more orders for the ARJ21, a smaller, regional passenger aircraft that carries up to 90 people.
News of the C919’s instant popularity comes as a blow to Boeing, which has seriously suffered in sales following the debacle associated with its 737MAX aircraft. The planemaker has been forced to pay out billions in fines and restitutions after it hid changes to the plane’s computer from its operators, resulting in two crashes that together killed 346 people.
Boeing’s sales have fallen below investors’ estimates for five quarters in a row, and the value of its shares have declined by 29% since the start of the year. The decline is in part due to the 737MAX’s reputation, but also crises like the COVID-19 pandemic, which have affected all airlines. More recently, parts shortages and low orders for other Boeing products, like the 787, have caused problems in production.
"In whack-a-mole fashion, just as Boeing gets something right..., something else goes wrong," Vertical Research analyst Robert Stallard said at a meeting of Boeing investors in Seattle earlier this month.
However, Comac and Boeing also signed an agreement at Zhuhai to expand cooperation on their joint research center, which has researched innovations such as biofuel, derived from spent cooking oil.
