China’s C919 jet sold for higher price in latest deal as Boeing returns to market
- Comac charges US$108 million for the home-grown C919 narrowbody passenger jet in a deal with Air China, up US$9 million from amount quoted to China Eastern in 2022
- The company has asked the government for help to boost market share of the passenger plane, which aims to take on Boeing and Airbus
China’s home-grown C919 airliner secured a higher price in its latest deal with Air China after its manufacturer, Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac), appealed for more support in sales at home as Boeing makes headway in deliveries to Chinese carriers.
The C919’s price increase was revealed in Comac’s deal with Air China, China’s largest carrier by fleet size, announced last week. Air China will purchase six C919 planes and 11 of the smaller ARJ21 regional jets, with deliveries between 2024 and 2025.
Air China revealed in an exchange filing that Comac charged US$108 million for each C919 and US$38 million for the ARJ21, or US$1.07 billion in total, but both sides had agreed to prices “lower than the list prices”.
Comac has raised its C919 price quote by US$9 million from 2022’s level of US$99 million as seen in its deal with China Eastern that year, according to mainland media outlet Caixin. Comac’s latest list price for the C919 is close to Airbus’s quote of US$105-136 million for its A320neo series in 2020.
At a Civil Aviation Administration of China meeting last week, Comac general manager Zhou Xinmin appealed for more government support, such as incentives to airlines and airports, to help boost the market share of domestically made jets.
Comac said in September that it had 1,061 orders for the C919.
What is China’s C919 passenger jet and can it take on Airbus, Boeing?
Domestic planemakers have strived to answer Beijing’s calls for self-reliance by launching the C919 while pressing ahead with plans to develop a widebody plane.
The C919 can haul up to 192 people with a maximum range of 5,555km (3,452 miles).
The three C919s now operated by China Eastern fly routes from Shanghai to destinations such as Beijing and Chengdu.
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A look inside China’s home-grown civilian passenger jets, the ARJ21 and C919
But competition is heating up in the sky as Boeing marked its first direct delivery of the widebody 787 Dreamliner to a Chinese carrier since 2019.
The Boeing 737 MAX is also expected to resume deliveries after it reportedly received clearance from Chinese regulators earlier this month. The 737 MAX was given the all-clear to resume flying in China in January.
China is expected to need 8,560 new passenger jets by 2042, and the country’s commercial fleet is expected to double to nearly 9,600 jets over the next 20 years, accounting for one-fifth of the world’s plane deliveries in the same period, according to a forecast by Boeing in September.
