Photo: CFP

The world's first C919 aircraft, and also China's first domestically-developed passenger jet, was delivered to China Eastern Airlines in Shanghai on Friday, and is expected to be put into commercial operation in the spring of 2023.

It is a major milestone in the development of China's large aircraft industry, and means that the global civil aviation market will welcome a newly developed single-aisle aircraft over more than 30 years, the producer Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) said. 

The delivery will mark the start of a journey of mass production for the aircraft, and Chinese observers said the global competitiveness of Chinese industrial enterprises will be enhanced like never before, accompanied by a rapid development of supply chain, especially after the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China laid out a new blueprint for advancing new industrialization and moving faster to boost China's strength in manufacturing, including aerospace. 

At 12:02 on Friday, the C919, with the words "world's first C919" painted on its side in Chinese and English, landed at Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport. China Eastern, the first recipient of the China-made C919 passenger jet, welcomed it with a water salute.

China Eastern selected three senior captains with a combined total flight time of more than 50,000 hours for the special flight, and a total of 80 guests boarded the plane, making them the first to experience its safety, economy and comfort.

China Eastern Airlines told the Global Times that it will also carry out more than 100 hours of empty aircraft verification test flights to test the aircraft's operational safety, maintenance reliability and various operational support capabilities.

The C919 jet is expected to be put into commercial operation in the spring of 2023 after meeting the requirements of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC). The jet will be put on routes in the cities of Shanghai, Beijing, Xi'an, Kunming, Guangzhou, Chengdu and Shenzhen, the airlines said. 

The airlines also specially set up the C919 flight department and selected 24 pilots with rich experience as the first batch of pilots, and the first batch of flight crew and maintenance engineers are also ready.

China Eastern has employed a two-cabin layout with 164 seats - eight in business class and 156 in economy class - all of which use a new generation of domestic cabin seats that are completely independently developed by China.

A C919 jet takes part in a flying display at the 14th Airshow China in Zhuhai, South China's Guangdong Province, on November 9, 2022. The C919 has received 300 new orders during the airshow. Photo: Cui Meng/GT

The delivery of the first C919 aircraft to the airlines means the producer, COMAC, has officially entered the list of the world's large civil aircraft manufacturers, and it also shows that China's large civil aircraft manufacturing has officially entered a new era of mass production, Qi Qi, a market watcher, told the Global Times on Friday.

The C919 project was established in 2007 and the plane made its first flight in 2017. It obtained the type certificate of the Civil Aviation Administration of China in September, and gained the production certificate on November 29.

China Eastern Airlines and COMAC signed the purchase contract for the first batch of five C919 aircraft in March of 2021. The remaining four aircraft will be delivered in the coming two years.

On May 10, China Eastern Airlines said in a filing that it planned to raise 15 billion yuan ($2.21 billion) to acquire 38 aircraft, including a total of four C919 and 24 ARJ21-700 planes. The filing also revealed the unit price of the C919, which was listed as $99 million.

The first C919 large passenger aircraft is delivered to its first customer, China Eastern Airlines, on December 9, 2022. Photo: Courtesy of China Eastern Airlines

Advance of China's manufacturing

The delivery of the first C919 large passenger aircraft and the upcoming route operation will provide more choices for global airlines and customers, bring more opportunities for global suppliers and partners, and inject new vitality into the global commercial aircraft industry, COMAC said.

It is also significant for promoting cooperation and innovation in the global aviation industry chain, as China's big aircraft industry now begins a new journey of mass production, COMAC added. 

In November, seven leasing companies signed orders to buy 300 new C919 planes and 30 ARJ21 aircraft with COMAC at the Airshow China 2022 in Zhuhai, South China's Guangdong Province. The C919 earlier had 28 clients with orders totalling 815 planes, according to Xinhua. 

Nigeria will consider buying C919 passenger jets as it grows the country's fledgling carrier Nigeria Air to 30 planes by around 2025, according to Reuters in October, citing aviation Minister Hadi Sirika. 

COMAC predicted that China would need 9,284 new aircraft over the next 20 years to meet market demand, including 6,288 single-aisle planes. By 2041, China's fleet size will reach 10,007, accounting for 21.1 percent of the global passenger aircraft fleet, making China the largest single aviation market in the world.

Chinese market watchers said that the significance of the delivery of the C919 is not limited to the civil aviation industry, and is a clear demonstration of China's advanced manufacturing capabilities.

When the airplane gained the type certificate of CAAC at the end of September, Chinese President Xi Jinping commended the achievements made in the development of the C919 large passenger aircraft and called for more major breakthroughs in China's high-end equipment manufacturing.

Xi stressed the need to fully exploit the country's new system for mobilizing resources nationwide and to prioritize safety and quality in making continuous efforts for more breakthroughs in key and core technologies, and for large scale and serialization in development. He called for solid progress in building the country into a manufacturing powerhouse, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

Also on Friday, China's domestically developed amphibious firefighter aircraft AG600M, codenamed Kunlong, carried out a successful test in Zhuhai, South China's Guangdong Province, making it the third AG600M aircraft to complete its first flight test since 2022.

The C919 will involve a huge supply chain, which means that the global competitiveness of Chinese industrial enterprises will be enhanced like never before. Moreover, it can be seen that the country's determination to develop manufacturing will not stop, Wang Ya'nan, chief editor of Beijing-based Aerospace Knowledge magazine, told the Global Times on Friday.

There will definitely be difficulties in the road ahead, and the possibility of major setbacks cannot be ruled out. But we must move forward, as the current expansion of the industrial chain is already on the way, Wang added. 

Market watchers also said that as the crown jewel of manufacturing, the C919 drives the continuous upgrading and transformation of the entire industrial chain to high-end manufacturing, and attracts more players to China.

We have been intensively introducing the aviation industry production line into China in recent years, and the goal is to deepen the Chinese market with localization, said Yang Jun, who is responsible for the Chinese business of Swedish bearing maker SKF, in an earlier interview with Global Times. He said that SKF supplies high-technologies to players including Airbus, Boeing and COMAC.

The delivery was a dream that comes true for many of the country's aviation fans, who have been waiting decades for this day.

"In the 1980s, I was really jealous seeing Boeing and Black Hawk with high-tech technology at defense exhibitions and air shows. At that time, I didn't even dare to dream about getting on a domestically-made large aircraft," Wu Gang, a Beijing-based veteran aviation fan, told the Global Times on Friday.

"From the J-10, the 20 family, to today's C919, we've made all of those on our own under the stronger than ever force of self-reliance across all industries in China," Wu said. Wu is also confident in the C919's future, believing that once the first delivery step is made, the following iteration speed will be even faster.

Two aviation giants, Boeing and Airbus, sent congratulations to COMAC.

Congratulations to COMAC for delivering the first C919, bringing a new model to the global civil aviation market, Boeing China said on its official WeChat account on Friday morning.

"We look forward to working with COMAC and other industry peers to continue working on the long-term sustainable development of the aviation industry," said Airbus.