China steps up drive to break Boeing and Airbus grip on plane market

China is stepping up its efforts to break Boeing and Airbus’ stranglehold on the plane market as the state-owned maker of the country’s first domestic passenger jet seeks certification to fly beyond the country’s shores.

Comac’s heavily subsidized C919, which made its first commercial flight in 2023, is already operated on domestic routes by China’s three major state carriers, Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines C919 between Hong Kong and Shanghai, its first regular commercial route outside mainland China.

Yang Yang, the company’s deputy general manager of marketing and sales, told the Financial Times that the company plans to fly the single-aisle aircraft in Southeast Asia by 2026 and receive European certification as early as this year.

“We hope to operate more aircraft domestically in China and thoroughly investigate the existing problems. . bringing them to Southeast Asia,” he said.

The C919 is a key project for President Xi Jinping China move up the technology value chain with the ultimate goal of challenging the Western duopoly of Boeing and Airbus.

Boeing’s financial woes and delivery delays, along with broader industry supply chain issues that have left it and Airbus facing engine and component shortages, have strained the global aviation sector and raised hopes for newcomers.

Over the next two decades, the world will need 42,430 new aircraft, approximately 80 percent of which will be single-aisle aircraft. Airbus forecast In 2024, aviation consultancy IBA predicts that Comac could increase its output of 16 C919s to Chinese airlines by 2040 from one to 11 per month.

However, Jonathan McDonald, IBA’s manager of classic and cargo aircraft, said that while Comac would eventually penetrate the export market, “for the foreseeable future, Airbus and Boeing will be the main suppliers of narrowbodies to most airlines”.

Global certification and maintenance support remain a significant obstacle to Comac’s ambitions to get the C919 operational overseas.

In a move to boost its international presence, Comac: opened new overseas outposts in Singapore and Hong Kong in October.

The new offices were needed to acquire new aircraft orders from customers, according to Mayur Patel, Asia head of OAG Aviation.

But Richard Aboulafia, CEO of AeroDynamic Advisory, says that “building sophisticated product support facilities in export markets is very difficult and expensive work and a necessary prerequisite to compete with Airbus and Boeing.”

While several carriers in Asia have expressed interest in the C919, some executives privately say they remain hesitant.

“Maintenance support is the main issue,” said a person close to Indonesia’s TransNusa, which has already received three of Comac’s smaller ARJ21s and is considering flying the C919.

Foreign certification for Comac, particularly by the European Union’s Aviation Safety Agency, is also difficult, according to analysts.

“The IBA does not expect the C919 to be certified in Europe in the near future,” Macdonald said. “Europe has very strict certification parameters.”

Meanwhile, certification by the US Federal Aviation Authority is likely to be complicated by US-China tensions.

EU and US regulators are often the “gold standard” for other global authorities, according to David Yu, an aviation expert at Shanghai University.

Along with pushing back the C919, Comac is also developing its first widebody, the C929.In November, at one of China’s largest air shows, the company announced that state-owned Air China had become the first airline to pledge to fly the aircraft. The aim is to challenge larger aircraft such as the 787 from Airbus and Boeing.

UK-based aerospace and defense analyst Sash Tusa said that while the C929 offers China another chance to prove its technological advancement in aerospace, the country will likely still depend on foreign engines for commercial aircraft will not be commissioned until 2040.

The main components for the C919 are still Western-made, with the aircraft’s engines supplied by the Franco-American venture CFM International, and its auxiliary power units manufactured by the American Honeywell.

“For now, [Comac is] to build aircraft that are largely Western in cost but with Chinese structures,” said Aboulafia of AeroDynamic Advisory. “That makes production ramps dependent on the West’s willingness to continue providing systems, and given the Trump presidency, there’s no guarantee of that at all.” :

Comac probably won’t be able to get a “fair share of the global market” over the next decade, Tusa said, but will provide important “import substitution” for domestic Chinese airlines.

“Airbus is built in China. Boeing doesn’t,” he said. “So Comac is coming in as a second supplier. It doesn’t make you a competitor. It makes you an act of government policy.”

Additional reporting by William Langley in Guangzhou