The single-aisle jet, manufactured by the state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac), is a prominent symbol of Beijing’s broader “Made in China” strategy, which aims to reduce reliance on foreign manufacturers.
China calls the C919, which can carry just under 200 passengers, its first large homegrown passenger jet. The aircraft took to the skies for its first commercial flight last May. It s certified to carry passengers only within mainland China and flies with China Eastern Airlines.
From what I have read no Boeing does not have to worry about China for the next decade. The standards and working relations between the Chinese manufacturer and the FAA are a long way off. Same with the EU and Airbus.
China is one of Boeing’s largest customers. China has already certified the C919 to fly domestically, and you can be sure there is pressure - and rah rah nationalism - that is going to get domestic Chinese airlines to switch. They can’t do it all at once, of course: training, parts availability, and a lot more come into play, but yes Boeing should be worried.
Even if they didn’t have a crumbling reputation and management confusion and criminal liabilities hanging over their head, the C919 counts as a big development. China has already been slowing purchases of Boeing equipment, the Chinese regulator is being, uh, unfriendly and unhelpful, and Boeing’s own projections are that China will become the largest airline market in the world by 2040.
The C919 will quickly dominate the Chinese shorter hop market. Possibly middling hop, the length of China.
Boeing has a better bet because Central Europe will drop a few notches with supply-side economics in its manufacturing prowess.
The Chinese market by 2040? With earned incomes falling in China? Has Boeing ever failed to guess correctly in anything? You are dooming them and then holding up their MBA studies. Both are wrong. Stop listening to Boeing for facts. At least wait till the current MBA is no longer CEO. The next MBA needs space to screw up.
The US may start to restrict American planes export to China under the pretext they are converting them into military ones, like the US is already restricting semis exports to China.
Also, Boeing planes are falling off the sky. That is just not good for capitalism.
That eventual switch is not about nationalism. It is about pragmatism.
Meanwhile, the C929 – Comac’s other in-development widebody plane designed to travel international routes of up to 12,000km (7,500 miles – is speculated to be on par with some aspects of mainstream competitors like Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, a second source said, adding progress is “in full swing”.
Backlog of orders at Airbus and Boeing could incentivise more airlines to order the C919
China’s COMAC is expanding production facilities for its homegrown C919 jets in Shanghai, according to one of the project contractors, as the state-owned planemaker ramps up manufacturing to fulfill hundreds of new orders.
Orders largely from China air carriers. But if the plane prove reliable & safe perhaps foreign airlines will consider the C 919 especially if it was priced right.
