Chengdu Airlines (EU, Chengdu Shuangliu) has taken delivery of its first mass-produced ARJ21-700 following the arrival of B-3386 (msn 107), its third aircraft of the type overall, on Thursday, October 19.

The move comes after COMAC (Shanghai Pudong) secured a type production certificate from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) in July.

Chengdu Airlines has a total of thirty ARJ21s on order from COMAC with deliveries due to take place over the coming years. In anticipation of the full-scale roll-out of the type into commercial service, the carrier said in a statement it has now trained and type-certified thirteen captains for the ARJ21 alongside 200 other flight- and cabin-crew.

As it stands, B-3386 has now been deployed into service on Chengdu Airlines' Chengdu Shuangliu-Jinan service. Its sisterships, B-3322 (msn 105) and B-3321 (msn 106), are currently used to run regular shuttles between Shanghai Hongqiao and Changsha Huanghua. As previously reported, Chengdu Airlines plans to use the ARJ21s to develop thinner trunk route services between provincial capitals, such as its Guiyang and Changsha Huanghua overnight bases, as well as between provincial capitals and small/medium-sized cities.