China’s first home-grown airliner is seeking its first Western buyer as it takes advantage of Airbus and Boeing delays. Meet the Comac C919.

• After 15 years of production, China’s first homegrown mainline aircraft launched in May 2023.
• The C919 narrowbody plane hopes to secure its first order from a Western carrier, Reuters reported.
• China is banking on the C919 to make it less reliant on foreign-made technology from Airbus and Boeing.

Aerospace manufacturer Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, or Comac, launched its first large home-grown airliner, the C919, in May 2023. It first flew with China Eastern Airlines.

Since its program launch, the C919 jetliner has garnered over 1,000 orders from Chinese airlines, but it is trying to break into the Western market and puncture the decades-old Airbus-Boeing duopoly.

Still, the manufacturer faces challenges in its quest to become less reliant on Western technology, like US sanction restrictions. The C919’s reliability and performance also have much to prove to compete with the next-generation Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 families.