The debut of the Chinese C909 regional jet (formerly ARJ21) in Vietnam has become a suspenseful one while the Asian country’s civil aviation authority is still considering authorizing VietJet to operate the aircraft.
According to local media, the country’s largest private airline, VietJet, has reached a wet-lease agreement with Chengdu Airlines, which was supposed to start operating two C909s on January 15.
The aircraft will be used for flights to the Con Dao archipelago, which has great tourist appeal but does not have an airport infrastructure capable of receiving large jets.
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The registration numbers of the C909 aircraft are known, the B-652G jet and the B-656E, which have not flown in Chengdu since the end of last year.
According to Reuters, Vietjet planned to lease two second-hand Embraer E190s and even began hiring crew members. However, the deal was thwarted at the end of last year for reasons that are not clear.
The change of course is said to have occurred after the Chinese made a very attractive financial offer, “too good to resist,” according to a source with knowledge of the matter.
COMAC’s international offensive
Despite still having limited commercial aircraft production capacity, state-owned COMAC has launched a major offensive in search of foreign customers for its C909 and C919 models.
The aircraft still require type certificates to operate in almost all countries outside China. So far, only Indonesia’s Trans Nusa has two C909s in its fleet, the first of which was delivered in December 2022.
Focused on the leisure market, VietJet has a fleet of 114 aircraft made up entirely of Airbus jets, including A320, A321 and A330 models.
