This is a first which could well shake up the cards of the global airliner market in the years to come.
The first Chinese airliner, the C919 manufactured by Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC), made its first trip outside Chinese territory to fly over the Singapore Air Show this Sunday.
Launched in 2007, the C919 represents the country's desire to become an aeronautical nation, capable of building a civil aircraft from A to Z in the same way as the United States and France.
Even if this single-aisle aircraft has the appearance of an Airbus A320 from the 1980s and even if for the moment it is only certified in China, COMAC has announced that it wants to invest several tens of millions of euros in the 3 to 5 years to both move upmarket but also to increase its production capacities with a very gradual deployment.
Initially, COMAC is targeting 150 units per year, a figure still very far from the delivery rate of 75 A320s per month in 2026 that Airbus is aiming for.
Since May 2023, China Eastern Airlines has flown this aircraft on a first commercial route between Shanghai and Beijing.
A rapidly growing air market
In a context where Airbus or Boeing are struggling to increase their production and meet the demand for new aircraft, and where Boeing is facing a series of crises in the manufacturing of its aircraft, COMAC becomes a possible alternative for airlines. , as noted by the specialist firm Aviation Consultancy: “We have seen a growing trend among customers to include the C919 option in their fleet assessment,” said one of its managers.
Last June, before the Paris Air Show, Airbus estimated that the growth in global air traffic and the replacement by airlines of their planes with aircraft emitting less CO2 should lead to the doubling of the global fleet in the next 20 years. .
The European aircraft manufacturer expects a need for 40,850 new passenger and cargo planes by 2042.
But above all, this growth in air traffic should largely be concentrated on Asian markets and in particular on the Chinese domestic market.
According to estimates, between 2023 and 2042, Chinese domestic traffic is expected to increase 3.3 times.
Indian domestic flights by 5. The increase will be less in the so-called “mature” markets, by 1.4 in American domestic traffic and 1.3 in Europe.
According to Airbus, more than 8,400 aircraft will be destined for China, 84% of which will be single-aisle aircraft.
We can bet that COMAC will be entitled to a good share of this pie.