Image Source : China Visual

BEIJING, October 26 (TMTPOST) — The first C919 aircraft will be delivered to China Eastern Airlines in December, Li Yangmin, the Vice Chairman and General Manager of the airlines said on Monday.

China Eastern will take on the responsibility as the first commercial operator of the C919 large passenger aircraft in China and ensure that it flies safely and efficiently. The C919 is designed to compete with popular single-aisle models made by Airbus AIR.PA and Boeing BA.N.

In 2021, China Eastern Airlines signed a contract with the C919 maker Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC). The catalogue unit price of the C919 in the procurement contract is US$99 million (about RMB 721 million). The aircraft is expected to be put into use next year. According to COMAC data, the C919 has received 815 confirmed orders from 28 customers, including 34 orders from foreign buyers, with a total order value of over 500 billion yuan ($69.62 million).

The C919 is a 168-190-seat narrow-body mainline passenger aircraft developed by the COMAC, designed for short-to medium-haul routes. It is a single-aisle 150-seat aircraft with a seating capacity ranging between 168 and 190. It is also known as two-engine narrow-body aircraft for short and medium-distance transport.

The C919 aircraft is China's first single-aisle large mainline passenger aircraft developed in full compliance with international advanced airworthiness standards, with China's independent intellectual property rights. With a maximum range of more than 5,500 kilometres, its performance is comparable to the mainstream single-aisle passenger aircraft of the international new generation.

On May 14, 2022, the first flight test of the C919 aircraft, which will be delivered to the first user by COMAC, was successfully completed. On September 29, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) officially issued the C919 aircraft type certificate to its manufacturer COMAC.