China’s C919 debut could inspire aviation supply chain to take off, but self-sufficiency ‘difficult’

Name: China’s C919 passenger jet completes maiden commercial flight from Shanghai to Beijing
Uploaded: 2023-05-30T16:00:15.000Z
Duration: 3 min 1 s
Description: China’s C919 passenger jet completes maiden commercial flight from Shanghai to Beijing

China’s home-grown C919 passenger jet completed its first commercial flight from Shanghai to Beijing on Sunday after more than 14 years of development

But key technologies, including the engine, avionics, control systems, communications and landing gear, were all imported despite the involvement of 200 Chinese firms

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China’s C919 passenger jet completes maiden commercial flight from Shanghai to Beijing

Kinling Loin Beijing

Published: 12:00am, 31 May 2023Updated: 9:21am, 1 Jun 2023

The successful commercial debut of China’s home-grown C919 passenger jet has already prompted market expectations for a fast expansion of the domestic aircraft production supply chain, as Beijing seeks to to break its reliance on Boeing and Airbus.

Sunday’s first commercial flight between Shanghai and Beijing has been seen as a critical step in China’s bid for technological self-sufficiency in the face of intensifying trade tensions with the United States.

“The completion of the inaugural flight will … drive the entire supply chain on passenger flight production – from design, manufacturing, training and repair sections,” Chen Xianfan, an analyst from the China International Capital Corporation, said on Monday.

Around 200 Chinese companies were involved in building the C919, according to a report from China Securities on Monday.

We expect that it would be difficult to upgrade the productivity of the C919 model in a short period of time

Orient Securities

And while certain parts can already be domestically produced, the brokerage house expects the proportion will continue to grow.