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

China is stepping up its push to break the grip of Boeing and Airbus on the aircraft market, as the state-run maker of the country’s first home-grown passenger jet seeks certifications for it to fly beyond the country’s shores. Comac’s heavily subsidised C919, which made its maiden commercial flight in 2023, is already flown on domestic routes by China’s three big state-owned carriers: Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines. From this month, China Eastern will fly the C919 between Hong Kong and Shanghai, its first regular commercial route outside China’s mainland.

Yang Yang, the company’s deputy general manager of marketing and sales, told the Financial Times the company was aiming for the single-aisle plane to be flying in Southeast Asia by 2026 and to gain European certification as early as this year. “We hope to operate more of the jets domestically in China and to thoroughly identify any issues before ..



. bringing them to Southeast Asia,” he said. The C919 is a pivotal project in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s drive for China to move up the technology value chain, with the ultimate aim of challenging the Western duopoly of Boeing and Airbus.

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