China's ARJ21 Makes First Passenger Flight

June 28, 2016

China's first locally built regional jet made its maiden commercial flight on Tuesday, carrying 70 passengers from Chengdu to Shanghai in what COMAC hailed as a milestone.

Chengdu Airlines flight EU6679 took two hours and 12 minutes and was "an important milestone in the development of civil aviation in China", COMAC said in a statement.

"Chinese skies for the first time have welcomed a passenger jet developed by China," it said.

The ARJ21 is designed to compete with similar small passenger jets produced by Embraer and Bombardier.

COMAC would continue to "optimise the design of the jet, push forward at a serialised and industrialised pace, and develop domestic and overseas markets," COMAC Chairman Jin Zhuanglong told reporters at Shanghai's Hongqiao Airport after the plane landed.

"We will make efforts to build the ARJ21 as a new calling card for China's high-end equipment manufacturing industry," he said.

China is keen to establish itself as a global supplier of aircraft and is also developing the C919 jet, which it hopes will compete with the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320. It also plans to produce a larger wide-body plane in a joint venture with Russia.

However, it has been held back by inexperience, a shortage of local aerospace design and engineering talent, as well as a lack of home-grown companies with the technology to help drive the project, say aerospace people familiar with its programmes. The challenges have led to multiple delays for both the C919 and the ARJ21.

The ARJ21, which seats about 90 passengers, was given permission to fly domestically by China's civil aviation regulators at the end of last year - more than 10 years behind its original schedule.

It has not received certification from other regulators, which means that only airlines in China and those that recognise the Chinese certification process will be able to operate the aircraft.

COMAC says that the ARJ21 has over 300 orders, mainly from domestic carriers.

(Reuters)