China’s home-grown C919, ARJ21 aircraft need more support, manufacturer says, as Boeing 787 Dreamliner returns

China’s domestic aircraft manufacturer preceded the arrival of Boeing’s first direct delivery of a 787 Dreamliner to the country since 2019 by calling for more support to boost the market presence of its home-grown airliners at home and abroad.

“China’s home-grown planes are still in the market introduction stage, and we suggest the government increase policy support for their development, which would be centred on purchases and uses of domestically produced aircraft, and research on incentives to airlines and airports,” said Zhou Xinmin, president of the state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac).

“Meanwhile, we need to further enhance the aircraft airworthiness certification capabilities, to support domestic-made airliners to go [overseas],” he said at a meeting held by the Civil Aviation Administration of China on Thursday.

Comac designed and manufactured China’s first home-grown narrowbody passenger, the C919, as well as the ARJ21 regional equivalent.

The C919 completed its maiden commercial flight in May, with a third aircraft delivered to China Eastern Airlines earlier this month, although it has yet to enter the international market due to the lack of international airworthiness certification from the United States and Europe.

China is increasing its push for aviation technology self-reliance, but it is hard to challenge the dominance of Airbus and Boeing, which are expanding their Chinese fleets.

Juneyao Airlines, one of China’s largest private airlines, took delivery of its newest widebody 787 Dreamliner from Boeing on Thursday and it landed in Shanghai on Friday afternoon.

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A closer look at China’s C919 jet Victoria Harbour flyover

China’s long-range widebody airliner, the C929, is still in the initial development stage.

The aircraft was originally a joint project between China and Russia after the two nations first discussed plans to develop a plane in 2017, but Russia was widely believed to have dropped out earlier this year.

The narrowbody Boeing 737 MAX, which is one of the biggest rivals to the C919, is expected to resume deliveries to China after it received clearance from the aviation regulator earlier this month, according to The Air Current trade publication on Wednesday.

What is China’s C919 passenger jet and can it take on Airbus, Boeing?

Boeing had previously not delivered any of its 737 MAX or Dreamliner aircraft directly from its factories to China since 2019, with the last 787 arriving in 2021 via a US-based leaser to China Southern Airlines.

It set up a joint venture completion-and-delivery centre with Comac in Zhoushan, Zhejiang province, in 2018 to meet the growing demand from the Asia-Pacific market, making its first 737 MAX delivery from the facility to Air China in December 2018.

The 737 MAX was grounded worldwide in 2019 following two fatal air crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia that occurred less than five months apart, killing 346 people.

China’s ARJ21, which has been flying domestically since 2016 and internationally since Comac delivered an aircraft to Indonesia at the end of 2022, had carried 10 million passengers by the end of November, data from CCTV showed.

Comac is also aiming to introduce the ARJ21 to Central Asia via China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, it said during a signing ceremony with the local government in September.

China would need 8,560 new commercial planes until 2042, while its commercial fleet would more than double to nearly 9,600 jets over the next 20 years, accounting for one-fifth of the world’s plane deliveries in the next two decades, according to Boeing’s forecast in September.

South China Morning Post