The Comac C919, China’s first domestically manufactured aircraft, made its maiden commercial flight on Sunday. It should mark a turning point for the Chinese aviation industry, which has long wanted to compete with famous Western aircraft such as the Boeing 737 MAX and Airbus A320.

The C from Comac forms an ABC for a reason in a parallel situation with Airbus and Boeing, and for the company, the plane is the culmination of decades of work.

Up to 168 passengers

The clean-lined and mostly white plane with a discrete logo at the tail took off Sunday morning from Shanghai’s Hongqiao Airport with 130 passengers aboard for a flight of just under three hours to Beijing Capital International Airport.

According to China state broadcaster CCTV, the C919, which can seat up to 168 passengers, will be mobilized for China Eastern Airlines’ regular routes from Shanghai to Chengdu in the south of the country starting today.

China, trying to become self-sufficient in technology, has invested heavily in producing the first Chinese-designed commercial aircraft. The state-owned company Comac is building the aircraft, but many parts come from other countries and American giants like General Electric and Honeywell.

Up to 1 200 orders

According to Comac, which stands for Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, the company has already received more than 1 200 orders for its plane. The state-owned aerospace manufacturer with headquarters in Shanghai targets the annual production of 150 aircraft. Still, the BBC writes, “Some experts say that most of these orders are believed to be letters of intent from domestic customers.”

Its development budget was 58 billion yuan (9,5 billion dollars), but its cost was well over 20 billion dollars. The C919 also has a much longer range than its little brother, the ARJ21, China’s first domestic jet in service since 2016. In May 2022, the plane was listed for a price of 653 million yuan, or 101 million dollars.

Exploding Chinese market

Asia, particularly China, are priority targets for Europe’s Airbus and US-based Boeing, which are trying to capitalize on the growing demand for flights of a substantial middle class.

In April, Airbus announced it would double its production capacity in China and signed an agreement to build a second assembly line in northeastern Tianjin for the A320. Tianjin’s first assembly site opened in 2008 and produces four A320s a month, a rate Airbus hopes to increase to six per month by the end of 2023.

Boeing projects a demand for 7 240 new airplanes in China over the next 20 years valued at nearly 1,1 trillion dollars, so it has started to build a Boeing 737 Completion and Delivery Center in Zhoushan, Zhejiang Province. The completion center is a joint venture between Boeing and Comac.

China is the world’s largest market for commercial airplanes. Chinese customers are now taking delivery of about a third of all 737s built.