A C919 large passenger aircraft, China's first homegrown large jetliner, is pictured at Meilan International Airport in Haikou, South China's Hainan Province, on January 2, 2023. The aircraft, which belongs to China Eastern Airlines, landed at Meilan International Airport in Haikou as a part of the 100-hour aircraft validation flight process. Photo: Xinhua

The first commercial flight of China's domestically-made C919 aircraft will be made from Shanghai to Beijing by China Eastern Airlines on Sunday, a source said, citing the flight schedule.

Developed by Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC), the C919 aircraft, China's first domestically-developed passenger jet, is seen as a manifestation of China's progress in the aviation industry. Chinese experts said the commercial flight is more important proof of China's strength in self-innovation in the high-end manufacturing industry.

The maiden trip is scheduled to take place from Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport at 10:45 and arrive at Beijing Capital International Airport at 13:10. The plane will then fly back from Beijing to Shanghai and arrive at 17:15, said VariFlight on Friday, citing the flight schedule. 

Although China Eastern Airlines has not made a public announcement, , the C919's maiden commercial flight has come under the spotlight in recent days.

Officials from China Eastern Airlines said on Thursday that the first C919 aircraft "will enter commercial operations soon." 

"We are very confident in the C919," Li Yangmin, vice chairman of the Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines Corp, said at the performance briefing on Thursday, according to media outlet thepaper.cn.

After so many years of development, the C919 is finally close to beginning operations. This is also an important historical point for China's domestic civil aircraft, and is also of great significance to China's equipment manufacturing industry, Wang Ya'nan, chief editor of Beijing-based Aerospace Knowledge magazine, told the Global Times on Friday.

China's commercial aviation must have its own place in the world's manufacturing industry, which is not only about market size, but also the status of equipment manufacturing, Wang added.  

China has unshakeable resolve in pursuing high-end manufacturing despite the challenges involved, and China's top leadership has stressed the need to make efforts to achieve self-reliance and strength in science and technology amid increasingly fierce global competition as well as the US' relentless push for a so-called technology decoupling.  

At the end of September of last year, China's top leadership said focus must be placed on key core technologies, continuing to work together to overcome difficulties, and putting safety and reliability first and eliminating all potential safety hazards when the C919 passenger jet was issued the type certificate by China's civil aviation regulator.

The commercial flight means the aircraft will be tested by the aviation market, and it is a major achievement in China's innovation-driven development strategy, Qi Qi, an independent market watcher, told the Global Times on Friday. 

The C919 aircraft will be operated in Shanghai as its main base. The airline plans to finish the introduction of five C919s by the end of 2023, and will make a decision on bringing in additional C919s based on actual operating conditions and forward planning linked to the company's aviation network, China Eastern said.

To ensure the commercial flight's success, China Eastern began a total of 100 hours of C919 verification flights in December last year. The carrier said the verification process includes the applicability and operability of policies, standards, regulations and procedures formulated by the carrier in the early stages of its use.

For future operations, Wang said the difficulties may be greater than expected amid the changing international environment, but there will be no doubt that "China will mobilize its entire industrial capacity to support the project."

Tickets for the C919 flight from Shanghai to Chengdu on May 29 were available on Friday, with prices at 919 yuan ($130), but sold out within one hour, VariFlight said.

Chinese Eastern and COMAC officially signed a purchase agreement to buy five C919 passenger aircraft in March 2021, and the first one was delivered on December 9, 2022.

COMAC said in January that the company expects to reach an annual production capacity of 150 C919 planes within five years, and has already received more than 1,200 orders. 

In an earlier interview with the Global Times in April, Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury said that COMAC has brought new competition to the market. "We have great respect for any competitor in the market," he said.