[Text/Insight China Bearer Xiong Chaoyan] On May 28, 2023, the domestically produced large passenger aircraft C919 successfully completed its first commercial flight. Now, as this historic moment is approaching its second anniversary, the C919 routes are being expanded again.

Last week, C919 successively opened routes to Shenzhen and Xiamen. As the southern economic and technological center, Shenzhen, and the famous coastal tourist city of Xiamen, these two cities have joined the C919 route network, making this network span 16 Chinese cities including Hong Kong.

Hong Kong's South China Morning Post reported on May 21 that over the past two years, with service upgrades and network expansion, the C919 has demonstrated China's ambitious goals in high-tech fields. Jason Zheng, an analyst from aviation information platform airwefly, said: "The C919 route network covers China's first-tier cities and popular tourist hubs. The increasing frequency of domestic jet flights shows their operational reliability and profit potential."

He further pointed out that the C919 is receiving close attention from overseas airlines and regulatory agencies. Its continuous stable operation on high-yield domestic routes (such as Beijing-Shanghai and Shanghai-Shenzhen business routes) will be the best proof of its performance strength.

On May 18, 2025, China Eastern Airlines' C919 aircraft executed MU5331 flight, departing from Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport at 9:28 AM and successfully arriving at Shenzhen Bao'an Airport at 11:31 AM. This marked the official launch of the C919, China's large aircraft, on the direct round-trip route between Hongqiao, Shanghai and Shenzhen, becoming the 13th regular commercial route operated by China Eastern Airlines' C919 aircraft. Visual China

As early as last week, China Eastern Airlines' website information showed that C919 would add two new routes, Hongqiao-Shenzhen and Hongqiao-Xiamen Gaoqi, starting on May 18 and May 25 respectively. Thus, Shenzhen and Xiamen will become new C919 destinations.

This means that C919 now covers all four major first-tier cities in China, achieving connectivity with Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. Additionally, other main domestic destinations for C919 include Chongqing, Chengdu, Wuhan, Hangzhou, Xi'an, Shenyang, Taiyuan, Wenzhou, Changsha, Haikou, and Sanya. Since January this year, C919 has also been operating daily round-trip flights between Shanghai and Hong Kong, marking its first cross-border daily route.

The South China Morning Post noted that since C919's first commercial flight from Shanghai to Beijing was operated by China Eastern Airlines in May 2023, China International Airlines (Air China) and China Southern Airlines (China Southern) have also received deliveries of this aircraft model. It is reported that China Eastern Airlines will soon begin receiving a new batch of C919 aircraft. This year, China Eastern plans to receive another 10 C919 aircraft, bringing the total fleet size to 20 aircraft.

Currently, the manufacturer of C919 - COMAC, headquartered in Shanghai - has secured orders for over 360 aircraft domestically, capturing an increasingly larger share of the domestic market previously dominated by Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 series single-aisle jets. Meanwhile, China is also striving to secure more C919 orders both domestically and internationally, hoping to eventually compete with the two major established aircraft giants, Boeing and Airbus.

COMAC assembly workshop. Singapore Aviation Week

In early January this year, Yang Yang, deputy general manager of COMAC's Marketing Center, told reporters in an interview that the company aims to have C919 aircraft operate in Southeast Asia by 2026 and obtain European certification as early as this year. "We hope to increase the number of C919 aircraft in operation within China before thoroughly investigating any potential issues before taking them to Southeast Asia," he said.

In addition, COMAC's manufactured C909 (formerly ARJ21) regional aircraft has been commercially operated with Indonesia's low-cost airline TransNusa for two years. TransNusa is the first foreign customer of this series of aircraft. Due to TransNusa's operation of 14 domestic routes and 3 international routes in Indonesia, including 2 routes to Guangzhou and Shanghai, the average daily deployment time of C909 reaches 8 hours.

On May 1 local time, Ryanair of Ireland stated that if the U.S.-led tariff war leads to a significant increase in aircraft prices, the company may cancel hundreds of Boeing aircraft orders and consider other suppliers, including COMAC.

Reuters reported that Michael O'Leary, CEO of Ryanair, mentioned in a letter to a senior U.S. congressman on the same day that President Trump's tariff policies might threaten the 330 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft ordered by the airline, with a list price exceeding $30 billion (approximately RMB 218.14 billion).

O'Leary said: "If the U.S. government continues to implement its unwise tariff plan and these tariffs have a substantial impact on the price of Boeing aircraft exported to Europe, we will certainly reassess our current Boeing orders and the possibility of transferring these orders elsewhere."

O'Leary mentioned in the letter that although Ryanair has not yet discussed aircraft purchases with COMAC, if COMAC's aircraft are 10% to 20% cheaper than those of Boeing's main competitor Airbus, Ryanair "certainly" will consider purchasing them.

This article is an exclusive contribution by Insight China and cannot be reprinted without permission.

Original source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7506791710924571188/

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author. You can express your opinions by clicking the 'Upvote/Downvote' buttons below.