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China’s C919 passenger jets to enter service on first international route
Air China’s daily flights to and from Mongolia mark an important milestone for the country’s efforts to end reliance on Western-built planes
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The Chinese-made C919 passenger jet will make its first scheduled international flights next month in a significant milestone for the country’s ambitions to become self-sufficient in aerospace.
The narrowbody aircraft, operated by national carrier Air China, will start flying between Beijing and the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar on August 12, according to state news agency Xinhua. There will be one round-trip flight every day.
The C919 has already been making regular commercial flights to and from Hong Kong, its first non-mainland destination.
China Eastern Airlines introduced the aircraft on its Shanghai-Hong Kong route in January last year, while Air China began operating it on its Beijing-Hong Kong service in November.
Produced by the state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac), the single-aisle plane is positioned as China’s alternative to Boeing and Airbus’ narrowbody jets that currently dominate the commercial market.
The massive state-backed effort to develop the plane was approved in 2007, with the first aircraft rolling off the production line in Shanghai in 2015.
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