Beijing (AFP) – China’s homegrown C919 jet completed its first international commercial flight on Wednesday, a symbolic step towards Beijing’s goal of challenging the decades-long aerospace dominance of Boeing and Airbus. The narrow-body jet has been billed as a potential competitor to Boeing’s 737 or Airbus’s A320, though the aircraft has yet to receive approval from American or European regulators. Beijing hopes the domestically produced plane will reduce China’s reliance on foreign technology and help it gain a foothold in the global market.
The C919 jet, produced by the state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) and operated by Air China, departed Beijing at 3:17 pm (0717 GMT) on Wednesday. It landed in Mongolia’s capital Ulaanbaatar at 4:58 pm (0858 GMT), according to public flight data. Checking in for the flight at Beijing Capital International Airport, passenger Hu Yuan told AFP he felt “a sense of pride” flying an international route on a domestically produced plane. “I hope our domestic planes continue to improve in terms of comfort and overall passenger experience — even outperforming Boeing and Airbus,” said the 40-year-old.
The C919 is made in China but sources components from countries including the United States. The Air China route will connect Beijing and Ulaanbaatar with one round-trip flight per day, Xinhua news agency reported in July. The C919 completed its first commercial flight in May 2023, flying from the Chinese financial hub of Shanghai to Beijing. Since then it has been regularly used for domestic commercial routes, as well as those between mainland China and Hong Kong.
COMAC also sent the C919 to be presented at the Singapore airshow in 2024 and 2026, and to the Dubai airshow in 2025. COMAC has already made its foray into foreign markets with its smaller C909 jets, which seat 78 to 97 passengers.
© 2024 AFP
