Beijing/Shanghai: China’s first indigenously built passenger aircraft, C919, had its maiden commercial flight operation on Sunday, marking its official entry into the civil aviation market as part of the country’s to compete with western rivals firms like Boeing and Airbus.
The state-run China Eastern Airline (CEA) carried the first commercial flight of C919 from Shanghai to Beijing. The plane carried 160 passengers on board. The flight took around two hours and twenty five minutes to reach from Shanghai and Beijing, said a report.
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The C919 has been is developed by Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) and it was granted a type certificate by the Civil Aviation Administration of China September last year.
The flight had first a successful flight operation in 2017. It carried out several test flights since then to different locations for testing its capabilities and upgrade the facilities by the COMAC.
Officials said that the C919 has undergone tests in various types of extreme natural environments including high temperature, high humidity, severe cold, gusts and freeze. Its safety, reliability, and environmental protection performance have been comprehensively assessed, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
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The COMAC delivered the first C919 aircraft was delivered to its first customer, China Eastern Airlines on December 9, 2022, After the delivery, the C919 jetliner completed its 100-hour aircraft validation flight process, comprehensively verifying its reliability with commercial operation in mind, the report said.
So far, the COMAC has received 1,035 orders to supply C919 from 32 customers by the end of 2022, according to the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai. Officials say the entry of Chinese aircraft could reduce the reliance on Boeing and Airbus and could pose a competition to them in the international civil aviation market.
