China ramps up domestic jet development as OTT Airlines makes maiden flight with home-grown ARJ21 jet
- One Two Three (OTT) Airlines, a subsidiary of China Eastern Airlines, embarked on its first commercial flight on Monday using a home-grown ARJ21 jet
- The maiden flight comes as China looks for ways to push domestically made aircraft to more markets and break Boeing-Airbus manufacturing duopoly
One Two Three Airlines (OTT Airlines), a subsidiary of China Eastern Airlines launched in February to expand domestically-produced aircraft to more markets, completed its maiden commercial flight on Monday.
The nearly two-hour flight from Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport to Beijing Capital International Airport will be followed by the opening of new routes to Nanchang, Hefei and Wenzhou over the next three months, according to the airline.
The Shanghai-based company used an ARJ21 jet for the flight, China’s first domestically made plane for the regional aviation market.
The single-aisle model, made by the state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac), went into service in 2016, has a range of 4,000km (2485 miles) and a flying altitude equal to other commercial aircraft, Chinese media reported.
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With 90 seats in 18 rows, the ARJ21 competes with the ERJ model made by Brazil’s Embraer and the A220 designed by Canada’s Bombardier, but marketed by Airbus.