On 12th November 2024, the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac) officially announced Air China to become the first customer for the company´s new wide-body airliner, C929. The purchase agreement between Comac and the airline was signed during the 15th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, held in Zhuhai, Guangdong province.
Development of the new Chinese airliner, then designated CR929, began in the early 2010s and, initially, it was a joint-venture project of Comac and United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) from Russia.
Works on that long-range airliner were for many years showcased as a shining example of perfect binational cooperation. The CR929 was aggressively marketed during the International Aviation and Space Show MAKS-2019 and was one of the highlights of that exhibition. However, something went wrong in 2022 and tensions between former partners resulted in UAC withdrawal from the CR929 programme. In November of 2023, Comac officially confirmed that the aircraft was now being independently developed by China and redesignated as C929.
In the spring of 2024, Comac officially confirmed the first C929 airframe is going to be completed by September of 2027. The new airliner is expected to have 280 to 400 seats and a range of approximately 12,000 kilometres, therefore effectively meeting the increasing demand for long-haul passenger flights.
Additionally, according to Comac press release, during the Zhuhai air show the company also received orders for sixty C919 and forty C909 airliners from Hainan Airlines, as well as another twenty C909 for Colorful Guizhou Airlines (with an option for additional ten aircraft of that type).
According to market forecast presented by Comac in 2022, the domestic air carriers are in demand for more than nine thousand passenger jets over the 2022-2041 period. The wide-body airliners should account for approximately 30% of them.
Cover photo: Model of the CR929 airliner, MAKS-2019
