A competitor for Boeing and Airbus? China-made C919 aircraft completes first commercial flight outside the country
The Chinese C919 aircraft has completed its first international commercial flight from Beijing to Ulaanbaatar. This move marks a symbolic step in China's effort to challenge the global dominance of Boeing and Airbus.
The China-made C919 aircraft completed its first international commercial flight today, Wednesday, a symbolic step toward the country's goal of challenging the long-standing dominance of the American Boeing and the European Airbus in the global aviation market. The plane took off from Beijing International Airport in the morning and landed less than two hours later in the capital of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar.
Hu Yuan, one of the passengers on the highly publicized flight, told the AFP news agency that he felt a "sense of pride" in flying on a plane built in China.
"I hope our domestic planes will continue to improve in terms of comfort and overall experience, and will be even better than Boeing and Airbus," he said.
The C919 aircraft was manufactured by the state-owned company COMAC and is in service with Air China. Since 2023, the aircraft has been used only for domestic flights within China. According to the Xinhua news agency, the plane is scheduled to fly once a day between Beijing and Ulaanbaatar.
Beijing hopes that local aircraft production will help reduce dependence on foreign technology and assist the country in gaining a foothold in the global market, with the aircraft intended to compete against the Boeing 737 and the Airbus A320. However, the Chinese aircraft has not yet received operational approval from regulators in the US and Europe. Furthermore, although it is physically manufactured in China, some of its parts are imported from the US.
Analysts noted that despite high ambitions, it will be many years before a Chinese aircraft can challenge the dominance of the two major companies.
"It's really more of a PR move," Scott Kennedy, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told The Guardian. "Ulaanbaatar was likely chosen as the first destination because of its proximity to Beijing. It doesn't change the fact that the construction of the plane was delayed by several years, that it is composed of Western parts, and that it is less efficient than its cousins, Boeing and Airbus."
