China has stepped up its efforts to break the hold of Boeing and Airbus on the aircraft market.

China has stepped up efforts to break into the aircraft market for Boeing and Airbus as the state-run airliner, the country’s first passenger jet, seeks certification to fly above the country’s shores.

In the year Commac’s heavily subsidized C919, which will make its first commercial flight in 2023, is operated on domestic flights by China’s three largest state-owned carriers, Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines. Starting this month, China Eastern Airlines will launch the C919 flight between Hong Kong and Shanghai, the first regular commercial route outside of mainland China.

Yang Yang, the company’s deputy general manager of marketing and sales, told the Financial Times that the company is aiming for the single-aisle aircraft to fly in Southeast Asia by 2026 and receive European certification earlier this year.

“We’re hoping to localize more jets in China and sort out any issues . . . bringing them to Southeast Asia,” he said.

C919 is an important project in the journey of President Xi Jinping. China Boeing and Airbus move up the technology value chain with the ultimate goal of challenging the Western duopoly.

Boeing’s financial woes and supply delays, as well as industry-wide supply chain problems, have left Airbus with engine and construction shortages, straining the global aviation sector and promising new entrants.

The world will need 42,430 new aircraft over the next two decades, 80 percent of which will be single-aisle aircraft. Airbus forecast In the year by 2024. Aviation consultant IBA predicts Comac will increase production of C919s – 16 of which were delivered to Chinese airlines as of December – from one to 11 per month by 2040, at which point it could reach around 2,000 aircraft. .

However, Jonathan Macdonald, IBA’s manager of classic and cargo aircraft, said that while Comac would eventually penetrate the export market, “for the foreseeable future Airbus and Boeing will be the main suppliers of narrow bodies to most airlines”.

International certification and maintenance support have been major hurdles for Commac’s desire to operate the C919 overseas.

In an effort to increase its international presence, Comack It opened new overseas stations in Singapore and Hong Kong in October.

Mayur Patel, head of OAG Aviation, Asia, said the new offices were necessary to support new aircraft orders from customers.

But Richard Aboulafia, managing director of Aerodynamic Consulting, said: “Building sophisticated production support facilities in export markets is a very difficult and expensive task and a necessary prerequisite to compete with Airbus and Boeing.”

While several carriers in Asia have expressed interest in the C919, some executives privately say they are still hesitant.

“Maintenance support is the main issue,” said a person close to Indonesia’s Transnusa, which is considering taking delivery of three of Commac’s smaller ARJ21 aircraft and flying the C919.

Comac’s path to obtaining overseas certification, particularly from the EU’s aviation safety agency, is also challenging, analysts say.

“IBA does not expect the C919 to be certified in Europe anytime soon,” Macdonald said. “Europe has very strict verification parameters.”

Meanwhile, the certificate from the US Federal Aviation Authority can be complicated by the tension between the US and China.

According to David Yu, an aviation industry expert at New Shanghai, EU and US regulators are often the “gold standard” for other international authorities.

In parallel with its push for the C919, Comac is developing its first widebody aircraft, the C929. At China’s biggest air show in Zhuhai in November, the company announced it was the first airline to fly the jet, which it plans to challenge larger planes like the 787 made by Airbus and Boeing. Dreamliner

Sash Tusa, a UK-based aerospace and defense analyst, said that while the C929 gives China another chance to prove its technological progress in the aerospace sector, the country is still likely to rely on overseas engines for commercial jets. IBA estimates that the C929 will be out of service before 2040.

For the C919, key components are still made in the West. The jet’s engines are supplied by Franco-American venture CFM International, while the auxiliary power units are made by US-based Honeywell.

“Until now (Comac) is building mostly Western aircraft in terms of price but with Chinese structures,” said Aboulafia of Aerodynamic Consultants. This makes production ramps dependent on the West’s willingness to provide systems, and with a Trump presidency, there is no guarantee of that.

COMAC may not be able to gain any “fair share of the global market” in the next decade, Tusa said, but it will provide an important “import substitute” for domestic Chinese airlines.

“Airbus is built in China. Boeing doesn’t,” he said. “So Comac comes in as the second supplier. Import substitution doesn’t make you competitive. It makes you government policy.”

Additional report by William Langley in Guangzhou