Chinese state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) has signed a deal with China Merchants Bank’s leasing unit, CMB Financial Leasing, to sell 30 C919 airliners.
With this commitment, the order book for the C919 totals 430 from 17 customers, mostly from Chinese airlines and aircraft leasing firms, COMAC told reporters at the Zhuhai air trade show.
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The 168-seat C919, which is underdevelopment, has been designed to compete with Airbus and Boeing.
Development of the C919 is part of China’s efforts to showcase its technological expertise in the global commercial aviation segment.
However, the programme has been hit by a series of delays due to lack of technology with domestic producers, to drive the project, reported Reuters.
The C919 was initially scheduled to take its first flight this year. The aircraft is now planned to take flight in 2015 and deliveries delayed until 2018.
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By GlobalDataCOMAC Shanghai Aircraft Manufacturing deputy general manager was reported by Bloomberg as saying earlier that the company intends to complete the final assembly of the C919 by August next year and carry out the first flight by the end of 2015.
COMAC has signed a letter of intent with Comsys Aviation Leasing to sell 20 ARJ21 regional jets bringing total orders for airliner to 278.
