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commercial aviation market. Embraer has airlines in China and the seventh largest airline in the world. It
close to 20 operators in Asia Pacific collec- has a route network covering 1,062 destinations in 170 countries.
tively operating around 200 E-Jets in the CEA placed orders for five C919 aircraft with COMAC in March
region. 2021. As per the Chinese airframer, the C919 currently has orders
for 815 aircraft from 28 customers. COMAC launched the C919
project in 2007 and the aircraft made its maiden flight in 2017.
New Entrant The first C919 aircraft rolled off the COMAC production line in
China is a new entrant into the world of com- Shanghai in November 2015.
mercial aviation with the Commercial Aircraft
Corporation of China’s (COMAC) C919 and While the C919, is technically in the class of the Airbus A320 and
ARJ21 (Advanced Regional Jet for the 21st Boeing B737 MAX, it will more likely compete in the market for
Century) commercial jetliners. COMAC has regional jets in export markets outside of China. CEA’s C919s
stated that it plans to attain a production are configured in a two-class cabin layout, with eight Business
capacity of 150 C919s annually by the end of Class seats and 156 Economy Class seats. The C919 can seat
the decade and it presently has a production between 158 to 192 passengers, and will have a range of 4,075
capacity for 50 ARJ21s annually. to 5,555 kilometers. Its cockpit is equipped with a new generation
of integrated side stick controls and five 15.4-inch HD displays.
COMAC has delivered two C919s and just over The C919’s cabin has an aisle height of 2.25 m and its middle
100 ARJ21s till date. COMAC is also develop- seats, are slightly wider than seats on both sides.
ing the CR929 long-range widebody dual-aisle
jetliners jointly in partnership with Russia.
The baseline CR929-600, will have a range of The ARJ21 aircraft is short-medium range regional jet, which can
12,000 km and seat 280 passengers. COMAC seat 78 to 97 passengers, with a range of 2,225 to 3,700 kilo-
will also develop the smaller CR929-500 and meters. The aircraft has five seats in each row. The ARJ21-700 is
the larger CR929-700. the basic aircraft of ARJ21 family, and its passenger basic layout
has three types: mixed class with 78 seats, full economy class
China Eastern Airlines (CEA) is the launch with 90 seats and premium economy class with 68 seats. The
operator of the C919, and took delivery of its twin CF34-10A turbofan powered ARJ21, has a high horizontal
first brand-new aircraft in December, 2022. tail and tricycle retractable landing gear. Its cockpit is designed
The registration number of CEA’s first aircraft, for a two-member crew. To meet the requirements of different
B-919A, corresponds to “B”, which represents regions and different route structures for regional aircraft, the
the Chinese nationality of the aircraft, “919” basic ARJ21 has a Standard Range Version (STD) and an Extended
for the aircraft type, and “A” for the first air- Range Version (ER).
craft. B-919A completed its first commercial
flight from Shanghai to Beijing in May, mark- The ARJ21-700 aircraft obtained the Type Certificate from Civil
ing a major milestone in Chinese civil aviation Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) in December 2014 and
history. The CEA flight, took off as MU9191 the Production Certificate (PC) from CAAC in July 2017. Indonesian
from Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport carrier TransNusa, was the first overseas customer for the ARJ21,
with 128 passengers on board and touched taking delivery of its first aircraft in December 2022. TransNusa’s
down at Beijing Capital International Airport. ARJ21 is configured in an all economy-class cabin layout with 95
seats. Since its entry into service, the ARJ21 aircraft has been
CEA took delivery of its second C919 in July. delivered to Chinese carrier’s such as Chengdu Airlines, Jiangxi
CEA is one of the three largest state-owned Airlines and Air China and carried nearly 6 million passengers.

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