Can C919 fly outside China?
The C919, which took its maiden flight in 2017, has operated with Chinese domestic airlines since May 2023, with China Eastern Airlines as the launch customer. It flew outside mainland China for the first time in 2024 on a Hong Kong charter flight. Production challenges and deliveries Since entering service, the C919 has almost exclusively been used on domestic Chinese routes. Launch customer China Eastern Airlines remains the biggest operator with 11 aircraft currently in their fleet—and a whopping 95 more to be delivered.Currently, just Air China, China Eastern Airlines, and China Southern Airlines operate the type; other carriers such as Garuda Indonesia, AirAsia, AirBorneo, Air Karachi, and even European low-cost-carrier Ryanair have hinted at ordering the aircraft.
Is the C919 any good?
The C919 is a conservative design, deemed by analysts to be similar to the 30 year-old A320 and less efficient than the A320neo and 737 MAX. The Comac C919 is a narrow-body airliner developed by Chinese state owned aircraft manufacturer Comac. The development program was launched in 2008 as a competitor to the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737.
How many C919 are in service today?
Since entering commercial service in May 2023, the C919 has reached 37 deliveries. China Eastern Airlines leads the fleet with 15 aircraft, followed by Air China with 11 and China Southern Airlines with 10. One additional aircraft remains with COMAC for demonstration activities. The C919 was successfully brought into service by China Eastern Airlines in 2023, and so far, they have already received hundreds of orders, the majority of which were placed by Chinese airlines. Nevertheless, the C919 still has a long way to go before it can actually stand tall with these giants of the aviation world.As of May 27, China Eastern Airlines’ C919 fleet had logged more than 28,000 safe flight hours, conducted more than 11,400 commercial flights, and transported more than 1. Global Times on Wednesday.