A C909 jetliner lands at Con Dao Airport, Vietnam, April 19, 2025. [Photo/Xinhua]
China’s homegrown C909 regional jet has marked 10 years of commercial operation, becoming a mainstay of the country’s regional aviation market and expanding its footprint overseas.
The C909, formerly known as the ARJ21, made its first commercial flight on June 28, 2016. Since then, the aircraft has carried more than 37 million passenger trips, according to the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, Ltd. (COMAC).
COMAC said 186 C909 aircraft have been delivered to more than 10 customers. The jet accounts for about 70 percent of China’s domestic regional jet fleet, operates on more than 860 routes and serves more than 180 cities, with over 500 flights a day.
Recent developments point to the aircraft’s broader role.
On June 22, the first C909 business jet entered commercial service on a flight from Shanghai to Beijing. The aircraft can be configured with 12 to 29 seats and customized with rest, meeting, reception and dining areas.
A day later, a Chengdu Airlines C909 landed at Bayanbulak Airport in Hejing County, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, at an elevation of more than 2,500 meters, opening the Urumqi-Hejing-Kashgar route. It is the second high-plateau route operated by the C909.
Yang Yang, deputy director of COMAC Marketing & Sales Committee, said the C909 has become a key aircraft in China’s regional aviation market, supporting border-region routes, feeder services and nearby international routes.
The aircraft has helped increase the supply of regional jets and flights while making better use of China’s civil aviation network, Yang said.
When the first C909 completed its maiden commercial flight in 2016, Chengdu Airlines was the only carrier operating the aircraft, with just one C909 in its fleet. It now operates 31 of the jets.
“The C909 has shown strong performance, especially after we deployed it on regional routes in Xinjiang and other areas, where it has delivered sound economic and social benefits,” said Huang Liying, chief accountant at Chengdu Airlines.
In places including Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Heilongjiang Province, 70 C909 jets have been put into service on more than 460 routes, recording over 10 million passenger trips.
In Xinjiang, the Turpan-Altay route has cut travel time to about one hour and 10 minutes, compared with around 12 hours by train via Urumqi or nearly eight hours by car.
Zhu Tao, a senior marketing manager at Xinjiang Airport Group, said the C909 has improved travel conditions for people in remote areas, making air travel more affordable and accessible while helping stimulate tourism demand.
The C909 has also expanded overseas since entering service in Indonesia in April 2023. It now operates in markets including Indonesia, Laos and Vietnam, serving 28 overseas cities and carrying more than 1 million passenger trips.
COMAC has also developed specialized versions of the aircraft, with variants for business aviation, cargo transport, emergency rescue command and medical services already delivered.
At the 2026 Singapore Airshow, Shanxi Victory General Aviation signed an order for six C909 firefighting aircraft, including three firm orders and three letters of intent.
The C909 seats between 78 and 97 passengers and has a range of 2,225 to 3,700 kilometers. It is designed for operations at airports with short and narrow runways and performs well in high-temperature, high-altitude and crosswind conditions.
“The C909 is highly adaptable and operates stably at different types of airports,” said Chen Qingqiang, one of the first captains to fly modified C909 variants.
As a pioneer in China’s commercial aircraft sector, the C909 achieved a “zero-to-one” breakthrough in the commercial operation of homegrown jet aircraft and helped explore a full life-cycle development path for domestically developed commercial aircraft, Chen said.
The aircraft’s decade of operation has coincided with rapid growth in China’s aviation market.
Data from the Civil Aviation Administration of China showed that the country has added about 40 million air travelers annually over the past two years, bringing its total air-travel population to 470 million, up 160 million from 2019. China now has the world’s largest air-travel population.
China’s civil aviation airports handled nearly 1.53 billion passenger trips in 2025, up 4.8 percent year on year, according to the 2025 civil aviation industry statistical bulletin released by the administration.