The fleet of C919 jets has been growing and has just reached 14 aircraft after the delivery on Thursday of another unit to China Southern Airlines, the third received by the Guangzhou-based carrier.
December 19 also marked another milestone, the one millionth passenger boarding a COMAC aircraft.
According to the state-owned manufacturer, China Eastern Airlines flight MU2158 carried passenger ‘Ms. Lin’ from Shanghai to Xi’an Xianyang Airport.
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“The number of passengers carried by the domestically produced C919 aircraft exceeded 1 million today, and the one millionth passenger is on this flight,” the airline’s crew announced.
Over 300 orders from three major Chinese airlines
The first commercial aircraft entirely developed in China, the C919 is a narrow-body jet in the same category as the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737.
It can carry around 160-170 passengers over distances of up to 3,000 nm (5,550 km). It is powered by CFM Leap-1C turbofans similar to those used by the MAX and Neo series, but is said to be less efficient than its Western rivals.
After a long development, the C919 entered revenue service on May 28, 2023, less than 20 months ago. Of the 14 jets in service, nine are in the fleet of China Eastern, its launch customer.
The Shanghai-based carrier has already completed 6,240 flights on eight routes carrying more than 850,000 passengers so far. State-owned carriers Air China and China Southern have two and three aircraft respectively.
Air China operates four routes from Beijing to Shanghai, Hangzhou, Chengdu and Wuhan with the C919. China Southern serves four destinations from Guangzhou: Shanghai, Chengdu, Hangzhou and Haikou.
Production of the aircraft, which is still quite small, is expected to be gradually expanded in the coming years to meet the more than 300 firm orders from the three airlines, as well as other customers.
