Airline News
COMAC gains traction in Zhuhai
November 18th 2014
The 10th China International Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai (Zhuhai Airshow) – the mainland’s top international air fare – closed its doors again on Sunday. Read More »
Most analysts’ optimistic forecasts for new record-breaking orders – particularly from the mainland carriers – went unanswered.
However, Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China (COMAC) had reason to celebrate as it signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for 30 of its yet-to-fly 168-seat C919 passenger jets with the leasing arm of state-owned China Merchants Bank. COMAC, founded in 2008 in Shanghai, is also state owned. Neither the total value of the deal nor the unit price was disclosed.
COMAC received an additional 23 orders for its 90-seat ARJ21-700 regional jet—comprising 20 from Comsys (Tianjin) International Leasing Co. and three from Congo Transport Ministry, the first customer from Africa.
"It is another step in COMAC's way out of China," the manufacturer’s chief financial officer (CFO) Tian Min told the South China Morning Post at the sidelines of the airshow. "We signed the memorandum of understanding with Congo at the Farnborough Air Show in July and in less than four months it has already turned into a confirmed order."
The CFO also divulged that the manufacturer is in preliminary talks with Russia over the potential development of a wide-body aircraft, but was unable to provide more detail on the feasibility of the project.
"We have done a preliminary study with them on the market outlook, and the results are to be studied by the company. It is too early a stage to say whether or with whom we will develop our widebody plane," Dang Tiehong, deputy general manager of COMAC's sales and marketing department, added to the discussion.
To date, the Shanghai-based manufacturer has received 278 orders for the ARJ21 and 430 orders for the C919.
Most commitments are from mainland carriers, or leasing companies. Western firms have so far shown little interest in COMAC’s aircraft, with the exception of 25 orders for the ARJ21 and 20 orders for the C919 from Connecticut-based lessor General Electric Capital Aviation Services (GECAS).
However, COMAC’s Dang said the company had signed a non-committal framework of intention with Eastern Air Lines, a U.S. start-up whose once-famed namesake shut down in 1991.
Meanwhile, there have been no commitments for airliners from Western heavyweights Airbus and Boeing.
Airbus, however, stressed once again in Zhuhai that it believes its regional A330 is the best short-term solution to alleviate the main constraints in the Chinese market.
Speaking to Flightglobal, Airbus China president Eric Chen said he did not see how China could “in a short while overcome" issues related to congestion at Chinese airports, air traffic control constraints, and a shortage of pilots.
In response to Boeing’s stand that Airbus is effectively pitching "old obsolete technology" to China with the regional A330, Chen says the key is not whether the product is old or new, but that it adds value.
