Here’s how China will compete with Boeing and Airbus with the C919
China flies its first passenger aircraft: The C919 jetliner operated its maiden commercial flight from Shanghai to Beijing yesterday. But the jet is not 100% made in China, it is made up of parts from American and French companies… All the details
Beijing prepares competition from Airbus and Boeing: the C919, the first airliner entirely designed in China, has taken off.
On May 28, the C919 successfully completed its maiden commercial flight, marking a major turning point for China's aviation industry that has long aspired to compete with its Western counterparts.
The aircraft was developed by the Commercial Aviation Corporation of China (Comac) from a project launched in 2007. “The first commercial flight is a coming of age ceremony for the new aircraft and the C919 will get better and better as it stands the test of the market ”, said Zhang Xiaoguang, director of marketing and sales department of Comac.
Designed to compete with the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 Max, the C919 can carry significantly more passengers and has a much longer range than its smaller brother, the ARJ21, China's first domestic jet, in service since 2016.
It is "a major turning point for the Chinese aviation industry which has long aspired to compete with its Western counterparts," comments La Tribune . However, the Chinese aircraft still relies heavily on Western components, including engines and avionics.
THE FIRST COMMERCIAL FLIGHT OF THE C919
After its first test flight in 2017, the Chinese-made C919 airliner operated its maiden commercial flight from Shanghai to Beijing yesterday. The flight, operated by China Eastern Airlines, took off at 10:32 am (local time) from Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport with 128 passengers on board, and landed in the capital at 12:31 pm (local time).
BEIJING'S SIGHTS IN CIVIL AVIATION
The first example of this narrow-body aircraft, capable of carrying 164 passengers, was officially delivered to the Chinese airline in December 2022. The carrier China Eastern Airline has ordered five of the new larger aircraft. Comac – which expects to produce 150 aircraft a year in five years – says it has already secured more than 1,200 orders for the C919.
Now Beijing aspires to consolidate its position on the world civil aviation scene and become a major player in the aviation industry.
DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN TECHNOLOGY
China has invested heavily in manufacturing the domestic jet as it seeks to become self-sufficient in key technologies. Although the state-owned company Comac is responsible for building the aircraft, many parts of the aircraft indeed come from different countries.
These include engines and avionics, from companies such as the US Honeywell International and Ge and the French Safran, notes Reuters .
THE COMPETITION WITH AIRBUS AND BOEING IS STARTING
So Beijing is preparing to compete with aviation giants Airbus and Boeing.
At the same time, Asia – and China in particular – are key targets for both Airbus and its American rival Boeing, which are looking to capitalize on the growing demand for air travel from the country's large middle class.
It is precisely in China that Airbus will increase production capacity . On the occasion of the official visit of President Macron and European Commission President von der Leyen to Beijing last month, Airbus announced that it will start a second assembly line for the A320s in Tianjin. And with air traffic growth expected to average 5.3% annually over the next 20 years, China will continue to be one of the world's leading markets. With Airbus' estimated need for nearly 8,500 new aircraft over the period, the country is expected to account for more than 20% of global demand.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/ecco-come-la-cina-fara-concorrenza-a-boeing-e-airbus-con-il-c919/ on Mon, 29 May 2023 10:03:33 +0000.