COMAC (Shanghai Pudong) China's COMAC (Shanghai Pudong) has run a successful test flight of its first passenger jet, the AC!C19. The narrow-body twinjet completed a 79-minute flight from Shanghai Pudong on May 5.
China Eastern Airlines (MU, Shanghai Hongqiao), which is expected to be the global launch operator for the C919, has ordered twenty of the aircraft, with purchase negotiations to commence within a year of the maiden flight, reports China Daily.
Chairman of China Eastern, Liu Shaoyong, says that the airline has enjoyed close cooperation with COMAC during the development stage. A Xinhua news report seems to suggest that the airline will initially deploy the C919 on flights between Shanghai and Beijing.
The C919 is intended to be a competitor to the Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) A320neo family, the Boeing (BOE, Washington National) B737 MAX, and the Bombardier Aerospace (BBA, Montréal Trudeau) CSeries. It is not entirely indigenous, however, currently sporting CFM International engines, while the auxiliary power system, wheels and brakes, flight control package, and navigation package have been developed as part of joint ventures with Honeywell Aerospace.
The new aircraft will still need to undergo rigorous certification before it can hit the market. Shanghai Daily reports that the Civil Aviation Administration of China is already conducting airworthiness tests. In late April, Patrick Ky of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) said that the certification process had begun, and that it would be part of ongoing Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) negotiations.
