China is stepping up its move to break Boeing and Airbus' stranglehold on the airline market, as the country's first domestic airliner seeks permits to fly beyond the country's shores.
Comac's heavily supported C919, which makes its first commercial flight in 2023, is already flying on domestic routes with China's largest state-owned carriers: Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines. Starting this month, China Eastern will fly the C919 between Hong Kong and Shanghai, its first commercial route outside mainland China.
Yang Yang, the company's deputy general manager of sales and marketing, told the Financial Times that the company aimed to have the single-aisle aircraft flying in Southeast Asia by 2026 and receive European certification earlier this year.
“We hope to further deploy the jets domestically in China and thoroughly identify any issues ahead. . . bring them to Southeast Asia,” he said.
The C919 is a key project in President Xi Jinping's campaign in China to move up the technology value chain, with the main goal of challenging the western duopoly of Boeing and Airbus.
Boeing's financial problems and delivery delays, and general supply problems in the industry left with Airbus facing engine and component shortages, have weighed on the world's aviation sector and given hope to new people.
The world will need 42,430 new planes over the next two decades, about 80 percent of which will be single-aisle planes, according to Airbus estimates in 2024. Aviation consultancy IBA predicts that Comac can raise its production of C919s – 16 of which have been delivered to Chinese airlines since December – from 1 to 11 per month by 2040, at which time it can deliver almost 2,000 for the flight. .
However, Jonathan McDonald, the IBA's manager of classic aircraft and equipment, said that while Comac will enter the export market, “in the future Airbus and Boeing will be the main suppliers of narrow bodies for many aircraft”.
Global certifications and maintenance support remain significant obstacles to Comac's desire to have the C919 operational overseas.
In a move to expand its international presence, Coma new overseas locations opened in Singapore and Hong Kong in October.
The new offices were necessary to help drive new aircraft orders from customers, according to Mayur Patel, Asia head of OAG Aviation.
But Richard Aboulafia, managing director of AeroDynamic Advisory, said that building “clear product support facilities in export markets is a very difficult and expensive task, and a necessary condition to compete with Airbus and Boeing”.
While many carriers in Asia have expressed interest in the C919, some executives privately say they remain skeptical.
“Maintenance support is the main issue,” said a person close to Indonesia's TransNusa, which has already received three of Comac's ARJ21 small planes and is considering flying the C919.
Comac's approach to obtaining overseas certification, particularly from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, is also a challenge, according to analysts.
“The IBA does not expect the C919 to be approved in Europe any time soon,” McDonald said. “Europe has very strict parameters for certification.”
Meanwhile, confirmation from the US Federal Aviation Authority may be difficult due to US-China tensions.
EU and US regulators remain the “gold standard” for other world powers, according to David Yu, an aviation industry expert at NYU Shanghai.
In parallel with its push for the C919, Comac is also developing its first widebody aircraft, the C929. At one of China's largest airshows in Zhuhai in November, the company announced that state-owned Air China had become the first airline to fly the jet, which aims to challenge larger aircraft made by Airbus and Boeing such as the 787. Dreamliner
Sash Tusa, an aerospace and defense analyst in the UK, said that while the C929 gives China another chance to demonstrate technological progress in the aerospace sector, the country will probably rely on foreign engines for commercial jets. The IBA predicts that the C929 will not enter service before 2040.
In the C919, the main components are made in the west. The jet engines are supplied by Franco-American venture CFM International while its auxiliary power units are made by US-based Honeywell.
“Until now, (Comac) has built airplanes that are mostly western in terms of price, but with Chinese architecture,” said AeroDynamic Advisory's Aboulafia. “That makes the production areas dependent on the willingness of the west to continue providing the programs, and, given the Trump presidency, there is no guarantee of that at all.”
Comac certainly won't be able to gain any “decent global market share” in the next decade, Tusa said, but it will provide an important “import point” for Chinese domestic airlines.
“Airbus builds in China. “Boeing doesn't want it,” he said. “So Comac comes as a second supplier. Substitution does not make you competitive. That makes it an act of government policy.”
Additional reporting by William Langley in Guangzhou