Photo: VCG

The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), China's aviation regulator, said on Monday that it will continue to focus on the C919 certification as one of the key tasks in 2022, a move to put the homemade aircraft in the sky as early as possible.

In the annual meeting of the CAAC, which focuses on the job arrangements in 2022, the aviation regulator also said that it will focus on the construction of a smart civil aviation and strengthen applied basic research in this field, and promote the transformation of scientific and technological achievements such as the Beidou navigation system and 5G.

It is another recent official statement from the regulator on the progress of the C919 certification.

In December last year, Yang Zhenmei, an official from the CAAC, said 34 certification tests were completed out of 276 planned, for the development of aircraft is an "extremely complex project."

Yang said since the launch of the airworthiness certification of the C919 project in 2010, the CAAC has coordinated resources to strictly enforce airworthiness standards and has invested more than 40,000 days of human resources in the review work.

The C919's Chief Designer, Wu Guanghui, also said in November he recommended the CAAC continue to focus on the certification as a priority for next year and asked it to designate resources to help with the delivery and commercial operations of the plane.

The C919 is China's first homegrown jetliner. The project started in 2008 and the plane conducted a successful maiden flight in May 2017. It has a capacity of 158 to 174 seats and a range of up to 5,555 kilometers.

The official from the CAAC said at the annual work meeting that civil aviation in 2022 will strive to complete a total transportation turnover of 104 billion ton-kilometers, 570 million passenger trips, 7.8 million tons of cargo and try to recover to about 85 percent of the level before the epidemic.

The CAAC said it will strive to achieve the overall turnaround of the industry and increase profits under the condition that there are no repeated waves in the epidemic.

The regulator said it will try to have 256 certified transport airports by the end of 2022.

China's civil aviation regulator unveiled the civil aviation development plan on Friday, vowing to take air civil transportation to more than 270 destinations and fly to more than have 70 countries by 2025.

It is estimated that by 2025, there will be more than 70 countries with flight connections and Chinese aviation companies will account for more than 40 percent of China's international cargo market.