China Focus: China’s First Regional Jet Delivered

Chinese plane manufacturer COMAC delivered China’s first home-developed jet to domestic carrier Chengdu Airlines on Sunday, marking a big breakthrough in the country’s aviation industry. Seven domestic routes are planned, Zhuang said, including Chengdu to Shanghai, Beijing, Nanjing, Xi’an, Kunming, Wuhan and Guiyang.

Xiangfeng (Flying Phoenix) is a 90-passenger capacity twin-engine jet, with a standard range of 2,220 kilometers.

Flightglobal’s Fleets Analyzer shows that Comac garnered has 162 orders for the aircraft, mostly from Chinese carriers and leasing companies. The jet was approved by both the Civil Aviation Administration of China and U.S. Federal Aviation Agency.

The jet will also inform the development of China’s first large passenger aircraft the C919.

The airline said it has prepared for its first five years of operations with the new planes and nearly 400 staff, including flight crews, flight attendants, engineers and technicians who were in training until October.

The ARJ21, China’s first locally built regional jet, is created to compete against Embraer and Bombardier. The first arrived in the Shuangliu airport on Sunday and the rest will arrive within the next five or six years, said Huang Weicheng, an information officer with the Chengdu Airlines.