A commercial Plane Corp of China (Comac) C919 airplane operated by China Jap Airlines at some stage in the Singapore Airshow in Singapore, on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024.
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SINGAPORE — China’s homegrown airliner is also the latest challenger to Airbus and Boeing’s passenger jets, however an govt from Airbus said he is never any longer haunted.
The Comac C919 is “no longer going to rock the boat particularly,” Christian Scherer, chief govt officer of Airbus’s airplane commercial industry, said at a media roundtable on the sidelines of the Singapore Airshow.
“It appears a chunk take care of an Airbus narrow body,” Scherer said, tongue in cheek, noting that the C919 is “no longer very varied” from what Airbus and Boeing already win in the market.
Scherer acknowledged that the C919 became as soon as a “expert effort” by China — however “the market is tidy ample for competition, we welcome the competition.”
“We manufacture no longer need to stay our head in the sand … it be a frequent thing to switch looking out to search out extra competition,” Scherer added.
Comac’s spokesperson did sooner or later acknowledge to CNBC’s quiz of for comment.
Touted as a competitor to Boeing’s 737 and the Airbus 320, the Comac C919 is a narrow body jet developed by the Commercial Plane Company of China, or Comac. It became as soon as licensed by the Civil Aviation Administration of China in September 2022 and entered commercial carrier with China Jap Airlines in Could presumably presumably also merely closing year.
The Comac C919 uses the the same engine as Airbus’s narrow body passenger jetliner the Airbus A320neo, powered by the CFM World LEAP engines.
Comac launched on the sidelines of the air uncover on Tuesday that it had signed a tackle China’s Tibet Airlines and finalized an dispute for 40 C919 and 10 ARJ21 jets from the Chinese language airplane maker.
The ARJ21 jet is a immediate to medium range turbofan airplane which might perchance flit shorter distances and is vulnerable for regional flights.
Even although the C919 is licensed totally by Chinese language authorities, alternate consultants win said it might probably be an early competitor to the commercial aviation duopoly between Boeing and Airbus.
“The alternate contacts we train to factor in the issues at Boeing, particularly the 737 Max, uncover an early opportunity for Comac,” Northcoast Be taught analyst Chris Olin beforehand instructed CNBC.
— CNBC’s Nessa Anwar contributed to this narrative.
