The Chinese-made C919 passenger jet will make its first scheduled international flights next month in a significant milestone for the country’s ambitions to become self-sufficient in aerospace.
The narrowbody aircraft, operated by national carrier Air China, will start flying between Beijing and the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar on August 12, according to state news agency Xinhua. There will be one round-trip flight every day.
China Eastern Airlines introduced the aircraft on its Shanghai-Hong Kong route in January last year, while Air China began operating it on its Beijing-Hong Kong service in November.
Produced by the state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac), the single-aisle plane is positioned as China’s alternative to Boeing and Airbus’ narrowbody jets that currently dominate the commercial market.
The massive state-backed effort to develop the plane was approved in 2007, with the first aircraft rolling off the production line in Shanghai in 2015.