China hopes to reach an annual production capacity of 150 Comac C919 aircraft in five years.
The deputy general manager of the Chinese state-owned Commercial Aviation Corp of China (Comac), Zhang Yujin, maker of the C919, said the company had received more than 1,200 orders for the plane.
“The first orders come from China Eastern Airlines, and currently several airlines are competing for our orders,” Zhang said, adding that there would be a “qualitative change” in terms of C919 production capacity.
Comac delivered the first C919 to China Eastern last December and the maiden commercial flight is expected to take place in the spring of this year, according to the state news agency Xinhua.
The aircraft, a rival to the Airbus A320neo and Boeing 737 MAX families, was certified by Chinese regulators for safe operations last September and for series production since November last year.
It is a single-aisle ship, with the capacity to transport 164 passengers in two cabins: one with eight seats in business class and the rest in economy class.
These narrow-body aircraft have a flight range of between 4,075 and 5,555 kilometers, which is why they are considered a team that is capable of flying medium distances, precisely in the range of some models of the A320 and 737 family.
Passionate about aviation, professional in communications and journalism, commercial aviator pilot and dispatcher; more recently, university professor. I worked for seven years in TACA, in Air Operations as a dispatcher, with FAA accreditation. My second profession, communications and journalism, allows me to write with absolute passion about the wonderful world of aviation.