New Chinese-Made Passenger Plane C919 Makes First Commercial Flight - State Media

BEIJING (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th May, 2023) The first commercial flight of China's mainline passenger airliner C919 successfully took place on Sunday, China Central Television reported.

The official China Eastern Airlines app said that the aircraft took flight MU9191 from Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport to Beijing Shawdu International Airport on May 28, departing at 10:32 local time (02:32 GMT).

The plane has already landed in Beijing, CCTV said.

Chinese state-owned aerospace manufacturer Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) on December 9, 2022 handed over the first C919 to China Eastern Airlines, one of the largest Chinese airline companies. The registration number of the aircraft is B-919A, with "B" meaning it is a Chinese civil aviation aircraft, "919" corresponding to the model name, and "A" meaning it is the first one in the series.

Its capacity is 164 seats: eight in business class and 156 in economy class.

Model C919 is China's first long-haul airliner with a seating capacity of 158 to 174 seats and a range of up to 5,500 kilometers (3,417 miles). The project was launched by COMAC in 2007 and is being implemented with extensive involvement of Western suppliers.

In total, COMAC plans to sell at least 2,000 C919 airliners. In 2018, the corporation reported that at that time the total number of orders for the purchase of C919 from 28 Chinese and foreign customers reached 815 airliners.