A significant step in the country’s decades-long drive to compete with Western rivals in the air was made on Sunday as China’s first domestically constructed passenger jet took off for its first commercial flight.
Despite the fact that the majority of its parts are imported, Beijing thinks the C919 commercial airliner will compete with Western models like the Boeing 737 MAX and the Airbus A320. As relations with the West worsen, its first indigenous airliner with mass-market potential would reduce the nation’s reliance on foreign technology.
According to state broadcaster CCTV, “most passengers will be able to choose to travel by large, domestically produced aircraft” in the future. According to CCTV, the China Eastern Airlines flight MU9191 from Shanghai “arrived smoothly” in Beijing shortly after 12:30 p.m., or about 40 minutes earlier than scheduled.
Following a brief ceremony on the tarmac, a few dozen staff members and officials posed for pictures as passengers filed off the plane and into the terminal.
“(The flight) was really pleasant, smooth, and enjoyable. A male passenger told CCTV, “I think I’ll remember this warmly for some time to come.
On Sunday morning, the broadcaster showed footage of the aircraft taking off above Shanghai Hongqiao Airport and reported that there were 130 people on board.
Passengers gathered at the sun-drenched Shanghai airfield to admire the sleek white plane before boarding, as seen in state television footage.
According to CCTV, passengers received crimson boarding cards and a delectable “themed meal” to honor the trip.
While a cake was being cut during the flight, another video showed passengers waving national flags and singing a patriotic hymn.
China has made significant investments in domestic jet manufacture in an effort to become self-sufficient in critical technology. Even though the aircraft is made by the government-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC), many of its components, notably its engines, are imported.
The flight was a “coming-of-age ceremony (for) the new aircraft,” COMAC’s head of marketing and sales, Zhang Xiaoguang, told state news agency Xinhua. He added that the C919 “will get better if it stands the test of the market.”
Significant Achievement
According to CCTV, starting on Monday, the C919 will run on China Eastern’s normal route between Shanghai and Chengdu in the southwest. In a ceremony held at a Shanghai airport last year, the first model of the narrow-body plane was formally handed over to China Eastern. The event was lauded by state media as “an important milestone” for the nation’s aircraft sector.
The C919 had received about 1,200 orders, according to Zhang Yujin, COMAC’s deputy general manager, who spoke in January to the government-backed Shanghai publication The Paper.
According to Zhang at the time, COMAC intended to grow its capacity for yearly production to 150 models within five years. Airbus, a European manufacturer, and Boeing, an American competitor, are focusing on Asia and China in particular as they seek to take advantage of the expanding demand for air travel from China’s sizable middle class.
After agreeing to a deal to establish a second final assembly line for the A320 in Tianjin, Airbus said last month that it will increase its production capacity in China.
Four A320s are produced monthly at the initial assembly facility in the northern city, which Airbus hopes to raise to six by the end of the year.
