China Eastern Airlines (MU, Shanghai Hongqiao) has scheduled the first commercial passenger flight outside mainland China deploying its C919 fleet, ch-aviation research has revealed.
The ch-aviation schedules module shows that it is a one-off charter operation between Shanghai Hongqiao and Hong Kong International under flight numbers MU7191 and MU7192, and it will take place on June 1.
According to the China Times newspaper, the carrier will use the aircraft to carry Hong Kong college students to participate in exchange activities in Shanghai.
However, this is not the first flight outside of mainland China. Last year, the carrier took one COMAC-manufactured airframe to Hong Kong to participate in a five-day exhibition. Additionally, testbed aircraft B-001F (msn 105) flew to the Singapore Airshow in February 2024, attracting visitors in a standstill display at Singapore Changi.
The ch-aviation fleets module shows that China Eastern Airlines currently has six C919s in its fleet and an outstanding order for 99 additional planes of the type (it recently received the first jet from its order for 100 units placed in 2023).
The carrier currently employs its C919 fleet on flights from Shanghai Hongqiao to Beijing Daxing International (1x daily), Chengdu Tianfu (4x daily), and Xi'an Xianyang (8x weekly). According to COMAC, by the end of May 2024, China Eastern had totalled over 6,090 flight hours and carried more than 276,000 passengers on these three routes since inducting the aircraft into commercial service in 2023.
China Eastern Airlines’s fleet also includes twenty-two COMAC-manufactured ARJ21-700s sourced from OTT Airlines (JF, Shanghai Hongqiao) in a wet-lease agreement.
