China Eastern Airlines entered China’s home-grown narrow-body C919 jet into passenger service yesterday and completed its first commercial flight, marking a milestone in the country’s effort to become more self-reliant.
The C919 is the product of state-backed Commercial Aviation Corporation of China (COMAC) which began developing the jet 15 years ago to rival Airbus SE’s A320neo and Boeing’s 737 MAX single-aisle jet families.
President Xi Jinping has hailed the project as a triumph of Chinese innovation, while yesterday state media trumpeted the plane as a symbol of industrial prowess and national pride.
“After generations of endeavour, we finally broke the West’s aviation monopoly and rid ourselves of the humiliation of ‘800 million shirts for one Boeing’,” Beijing Daily wrote, referring to the early years of economic reform around 40 years ago when China manufactured mainly low-value goods.
The C919 took off from Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport where COMAC and China Eastern Airlines are headquartered, and landed two hours later at Beijing Capital Airport, showed flight tracker app Variflight.
“I’m confident about the plane. The flight was smoother than expected,” one of about 130 passengers told state broadcaster CCTV as he disembarked.
The plane is scheduled to return to Shanghai, then make a longer two-way flight to the southwestern city of Chengdu today.
Lv Boyuan, a 21-year-old student and aviation enthusiast, was at Shanghai’s airport to fly to Chengdu from where he planned to return on the C919 the following day.
“I’ve been really looking forward to its flight, especially because it’s a new-generation aircraft, unlike Boeing and Airbus equivalents which have been around for a number of years now,” said Lv.
The C919 made its first flight in 2017 after years of delays and has undergone numerous test flights since. State-backed China Eastern Airlines ordered five of the jets in March 2021.