A small step for an airline, a large step for Chinese aviation? China’s first locally-made passenger plane has taken its first scheduled flight between Shanghai and Beijing.
China Eastern Airlines flight MU9191 carried more than 130 passengers on a commercial flight from Shanghai Hongqiao Airport to Beijing Capital Airport on Sunday, where the hub welcomed it with a water salute.
But more importantly, the narrow-body passenger C919 plane represents Beijing’s bid to disrupt the global Boeing and Airbus duopoly on passenger jet production.
China Eastern general manager Li Yangmin said at a ceremony marking the event, “the safety, reliability and abilities needed to ensure [the plane’s] performance have all been fully proved”.
Passengers shared the excitement felt on board the first flight.
“This is the first large aircraft made by China and I know it’s meaningful, because my family is also involved in the aviation industry,” a 14-year-old student in Beijing told state broadcaster CCTV.
“I had to be here to witness everything, so I signed up for today’s flight in February and got the opportunity to take the return flight.”
For the first flight, China Eastern provided a special food and beverage service comprising claypot rice, mango pudding, chocolate shortbread, and Shanghai favourite White Rabbit Creamy Candy.
According to the South China Morning Post, the C919 also commenced regular flights between Shanghai and Sichuan capital, Chengdu, on Monday.
Constructed by the state-owned Commercial Aviation Corporation of China (Comac), the C919 features eight business and 156 economy class seats. And Beijing hopes the plane will compete with the B737 and A320 family of single-aisle aircraft.
Long take-off
But the C919 has taken a long time to get off the ground, with some 16 years of development behind it.
Comac first unveiled the aircraft to the public in 2015 and it took its first test flight in 2017. However, it wasn’t until September last year, that China’s aviation regulator gave it the green light to run commercial passenger operations, SCMP reported.
According to CCTV, 32 customers had ordered some 1,035 C919 jets from Comac by the end of last year.
The carriers will use the jet on domestic flights between major cities such as Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Kunming, and Xian.
