In response to my story entitled “The 12 new simulators strengthen Turkish Airlines' pilot training in compliance with civil aviation training standards” published by newswav.com on Monday, 27th July 2026, I received positive feedback from my former Malaysia Airlines (MAS) colleagues in Shanghai, that “COMAC (acronym for Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, Ltd) is specially tasked with designing & manufacturing aircraft to reduce reliance on Airbus and Boeing. “C919” aircraft is the short form of trunk liner code for COMAC 919. The letter “C” is the 1st letter of both “COMAC” and “China”. It is a short-medium range commercial trunk liner that can claim indigenous intellectual property. Its all-economy class layout entails 168 seats, and the hybrid class layout 156 seats. The basic version is designed to cover a range of 4,075 km, while the enhanced version can stretch to 5,555 km. Its economic life duration is designed to be 90,000 flying hours/30 calendar years.” (https://simpleflying.com)
I understand COMAC is a centrally managed core enterprise in civil aircraft industry of China. The COMAC C919 is a modern narrow-body passenger jet developed by China to compete with the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 families. While it is actively flown by major mainland Chinese carriers (including Air China, China Eastern and China Southern). COMAC has secured firm orders and delivery agreements from several airlines in Asia to acquire the C919 as part of COMAC's Asian region expansion. COMAC aircraft models now flying include the C909 (formerly ARJ21) and C929.
I was informed that Air China is launching the C919's first-ever scheduled international route on 12th August 2026, offering a daily round-trip services connecting Beijing to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. The business prospect for COMAC C919 is highly promising because it offers attractive Chinese state-backed financing packages. This makes it an incredibly appealing alternative for emerging budget carriers in Asian region that face tight capital constraints. Following a 2026 assembly line expansion in Shanghai, COMAC's production capacity is projected to exceed 100 aircraft annually. (https://www.flightglobal.com)
Zulkifly Baharom (hajizul50@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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