By Ahmed Elimam and Federico Maccioni
DUBAI (Reuters) -China staged a Middle East debut for its C919 jetliner with a flying display at the Dubai Airshow on Monday, its first outside East Asia, as it showcases plans to compete with Airbus and Boeing. The C919 aircraft, in a white livery with blue and green details, took off at around 3:30 p.m. local time (1130 GMT) and made a few circle rounds in the sky before landing safely on the Al-Maktoum international airport runway tarmac.
Chinese planemaker COMAC has ambitions to take on dominant Western manufacturers Airbus and Boeing as well as their smaller Brazilian rival Embraer. Its two existing plane models – the C909 and C919 – lack key certifications from Western regulators, however, and COMAC is looking for alternative markets to help boost its profile. C919: CHINA’S ANSWER TO THE AIRBUS A321NEO, BOEING MAX 10 At the Airshow on Monday, dozens of people lined up to see the C919 airplane parked at the venue alongside dozens of other aircraft. A pilot sat in its cockpit talking to visitors about his experience operating the plane. COMAC is building plans for a family of aircraft. At its stand in the airshow’s main exhibition hall, visitors took photos of a longer version of the C919 dubbed the Stretched Variant, which COMAC said would seat 210 passengers and serve the Asia-Pacific region. The planned longer version takes aim at the Airbus A321neo and Boeing’s upcoming 737 MAX 10 – the top end of the single-aisle market where Airbus and Boeing are battling for the most hotly contested orders. On the tarmac, COMAC also displayed its regional C909, which was China’s first jet-engine-powered plane to reach commercial production and entered service in 2016.
Neither model has won a major global customer so far.
CHINA TARGETS LAST BASTION OF WESTERN MANUFACTURING
COMAC also displayed materials outlining its planned C929 wide-body jet – originally co-developed with Russia and now driven solely by COMAC – but with scarce technical details.
COMAC officials declined to comment on the company’s presence at the airshow and said there were no media engagements planned. COMAC said in a statement that it “remains committed to open cooperation and looks forward to building closer, stronger, and deeper relationships with global customers and partners.” Gulf countries have strong ties with China, the biggest trading partner for both Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which have welcomed cooperation with Chinese firms in recent years, including in manufacturing, construction and technology. Analysts do not expect China to take a significant slice of the global jet market beyond deals with supportive countries any time soon but say its presence is a clear signal of its ambition to penetrate one of the last bastions of Western manufacturing. Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Stephanie Pope welcomed the arrival of COMAC at one of the world’s premier industry events but pledged to maintain an edge through continued innovation. “Competition is great for the industry. It’s great for Boeing. It makes us all better,” she told Reuters.
(Additional reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Adam Jourdan and Joe Bavier)
