A Business Plane Corp. of China (Comac) C919 plane underneath meeting on the Comac Shanghai Analysis and Growth Middle on Might 4, 2017.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Pictures
China’s homegrown C919 passenger jet departed on its first scheduled worldwide industrial flight Wednesday, marking a milestone in Beijing’s push to develop an alternative choice to Boeing and Airbus.
The Air China-operated jet took off from Beijing Capital Worldwide Airport sure for Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, simply after 3:00 p.m. native time (3:00 a.m. ET), touching down some two hours later, based on FlightRadar24. It marks the primary time the narrow-body plane has operated past Chinese language territory.
The Beijing-Ulaanbaatar service is about to function day by day, based on Air China.
The flight marks one other step in China’s effort to ascertain the state-owned Business Plane Company of China, or COMAC, as a competitor in a world passenger plane market dominated by U.S.-based Boeing and Europe’s Airbus.
Nonetheless, the C919 remains to be reliant on overseas elements and has not obtained certification from main U.S. or European aviation regulators, limiting its capability to win clients in lots of abroad markets.
“Manufacturing of COMAC’s C919 narrow-body passenger jet nonetheless depends closely on overseas suppliers,” Andreas Mischer, an analyst on the Mercator Institute for China Research, or MERICS, advised CNBC.
He highlighted the plane’s engines, manufactured by CFM Worldwide, a three way partnership between U.S.-based GE Aerospace and France’s Safran Plane Engines.
COMAC additionally fell in need of a “Made in China 2025” purpose for domestically-produced massive passenger plane to seize 10% of China’s home market, Mischer mentioned.
Nonetheless, COMAC has more and more showcased the plane abroad. The C919 and smaller C909 made their Dubai Airshow debuts in November 2025, the place COMAC mentioned it needed to deepen ties with the worldwide aviation trade.
The C919 is a single-aisle narrow-body airliner that may carry as much as 174 passengers, designed for a similar broad market phase as Boeing’s 737 MAX and Airbus’s A320neo.
Can COMAC problem Boeing and Airbus?
Whereas China is likely one of the world’s largest aviation markets, giving COMAC a significant home buyer base, the nation’s home airways proceed to depend upon Boeing and Airbus plane.
China’s first C919 high-altitude plane takes off throughout its maiden flight check at Shanghai Pudong Worldwide Airport on July 29, 2026 in Shanghai, China.
Visible China Group | Getty Pictures
In Might, China confirmed an order of 200 Boeing planes, in addition to engines and spare components, demonstrating the nation’s continued reliance on U.S.-made industrial jets whilst Beijing backs COMAC.
COMAC has constructed up a considerable order backlog, primarily from Chinese language airways and leasing corporations, however manufacturing stays comparatively small.
Mischer mentioned COMAC had delivered a cumulative 32 C919s by the tip of 2025, in contrast with round 100 narrow-body plane delivered by Airbus to China in 2025 alone. COMAC delivered one other eight C919s within the first half of this yr, he mentioned.
That leaves the producer “a good distance” from its purpose of manufacturing 200 plane yearly by 2029, based on Mischer.
Scaling manufacturing is barely a part of the problem. COMAC additionally must persuade airways it will probably help the plane as soon as they’re in service.
Rob Morris, a now-retired aviation analyst, advised CNBC that “COMAC’s tempo of growth and manufacturing is just too gradual” to genuinely compete with Airbus and Boeing.
“While the C919 does have potential to impression Airbus and Boeing gross sales in China…the gradual tempo of execution means it would take time,“ he mentioned. “I believe the rationale for that is passenger and airline acceptance.”
“It isn’t simply sufficient to develop, construct and ship the plane, the [original equipment manufacturer] has to offer 24/7/365 in-service help to make sure dispatch reliability of the C919 matches these of the nicely understood and established A320 and 737. This takes time and is barely confirmed by sustained operation.”
Plane manufacturing is each advanced and weak to provide chain disruptions, with shortages of even comparatively minor elements able to stopping a completed jet from being delivered.
“What number of components does it take to construct a aircraft? The reply is all of them,” Richard Aboulafia, managing director at AeroDynamic Advisory, advised CNBC earlier this yr. “Even when it is simply fasteners, it means you may’t construct the aircraft.”
The complexity means bottlenecks can emerge a number of layers down the provision chain, Aboulafia mentioned, with shortages starting from engines and fuselage elements to castings, forgings and fasteners.
Earlier than COMAC can attain international competitiveness, it might want to put its provide chain on extra stable footing, considerably bolster manufacturing capability and obtain scale, Mischer famous. “Even then, will probably be exhausting to turn out to be absolutely self-reliant in a product as difficult as a passenger jet.”
Regardless of these hurdles, the C919 represents a major achievement for China’s aerospace trade.
“The flexibility to combine the huge array of elements, techniques, and software program to make a passenger jet is a feat that solely a handful of gamers worldwide, notably Airbus and Boeing, have managed,” he mentioned.
– CNBC’s Evelyn Cheng contributed to this report.
