China’s Self-Developed Aircraft Received Certificate
Chinese President Xi Jinping considers this certification as a symbol of China’s “whole-nation system” in technological development (Flickr).
The Chinese C919 aircraft received a certificate from the Civil Aviation Administration of China on September 29, allowing it to compete with the Airbus A320 and Boeing B737. The next day, Chinese President Xi Jinping invited the C919 Aircraft Project Development Team to the Great Hall of the People in Beijing and stressed the advantages of China’s “whole-nation system” in technological development and breakthroughs.
C919 is a narrow-body airliner manufactured by the state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) based in Shanghai. With 158 to 168 seats on board and a maximum flight range of 5555 kilometers, the C919 is expected to challenge the duopoly of the Airbus A320 and Boeing B737 in the international aircraft market. By late 2020, COMAC has already received 1065 orders from 32 different domestic airlines and financial institutions. However, according to a Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) report, only 148 among these orders were confirmed.
After meeting the Chinese standards for airworthiness, C919 also attracted customers from abroad. The Nigerian Aviation Minister Hadi Sirika expressed the interest of Nigeria Air, Nigeria’s newly-founded flag carrier, in diversifying its fleet, citing the nation’s “cordial and friendly relationship” with China.
Although direct government subsidies for COMAC were reported to be only RMB 528 million in the 2010s, it received a stunning RMB 328.5 billion by issuing corporate bonds, most of which were purchased by state-owned entities. In addition, support from the state has secured a share of the Chinese domestic aviation market for C919. The state-owned China Eastern Airlines has already committed to becoming the first airline to take delivery of the newly certified aircraft, and more Chinese airlines will likely follow.
Despite having a price nearly a quarter lower than the Airbus A320neo, C919 has not had significant success on the international market. This has been attributed to not being as reliable as its Western counterparts due to a lack of safety records. Moreover, additional training needed for a new aircraft model and the limited C919s currently being manufactured slow down its adoption process among Chinese buyers.
Scott Kennedy, a senior adviser at CSIS, pointed out further defects of C919 arguing that the plane is not as Chinese as the Chinese authorities claimed it to be. He said that more than 70% of C919’s top 82 suppliers are either American or European, and even among the 14 Chinese suppliers, half of them are Chinese-foreign joint ventures. Apart from providing a wide array of key parts, “western” countries also control critical assembly techniques thanks to their previous experience. Western technology supposedly renders C919 vulnerable to sanctions. Kennedy suggests that, at the moment, China does not possess the ability to manufacture a commercial jet on its own. China, therefore, is far from challenging the duopoly of Airbus and Boeing in the global civil aviation market.