Mega C919 purchase by China’s flagship airline lifts homegrown jet in competition with Boeing

Air China’s peer-catching settlement to amass 100 domestically made C919 jets is expected to flip heads international and additional elevate ardour within the somewhat contemporary planes as the repute of rival Boeing has been grounded by security concerns.

The present size from China’s flagship airline also ensures years of additional enterprise for the C919’s voice-owned manufacturer, the Commercial Plane Corporation of China (COMAC), which would possibly also in flip attract investment and more purchases, in accordance with analysts.

Air China, a Beijing-based carrier with 196 flight locations including bigger than 60 international, said on Friday (Apr 26) that it had signed an settlement with COMAC to amass the C919s from this year thru 2031.

Sweetening the deal, the airline said it had negotiated a “moderately substantial mark discount” off the listed total of US$10.8 billion for the present.

The acquisition comes as Boeing – which makes up half of of the US-European duopoly with Airbus – has been grappling with a chain of security scandals in most up-to-date months. In response, the US aviation regulator blocked Boeing from expanding manufacturing of its most traditional plane, the 737 Max – a single-aisle, narrowbody put worship the C919.

“The C919, for my phase, is a fundamental step ahead, no longer honest for China, but it completely (also) puts one other participant into the sector internationally,” said Hugh Ritchie, CEO of Aviation Analysts International in Australia. “There’s a switch faraway from 737s and Boeing.”

Boeing has warned of likely delays in getting planes to customers as the 108-year-veteran company ramps up security checks. And Airbus has postponed some deliveries to as unhurried as 2025 on fable of offer-chain disorders.

The C919 became designed in phrases of physique width to compete with the Boeing 737 family and Airbus’ A320 line of narrowbody jets. It began industrial passenger flights in Would possibly per chance per chance per chance per chance also.