Boeing Troubles Could Be an Opportunity for Made-in-China Planes
The state-owned narrowbody passenger plane is competing with both the 737 Max 8 and Airbus 320.
A Comac C919 takes off from Shanghai Pudong International Airport during its maiden flight on Dec. 28, 2018.
Photo: AP ImagesAirlines worried about buying from Boeing Co. have another supplier besides Airbus SE to choose from: the Chinese government. The state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China, or Comac, is building the C919, a narrowbody passenger plane with a capacity of about 170 that the company says has more than 800 orders worldwide. It will compete with the Boeing 737 Max 8—as well as the Airbus 320neo—as part of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s ambitious gamble to build an aerospace industry from scratch and break Western companies’ grip on the skies.
China grounded the Max 8 within hours of the Ethiopian Airlines crash, leading a global wave of suspensions. “These kinds of events provide an opportunity for Comac to get their foot in the door,” says Chad Ohlandt, a senior engineer at Rand Corp. in Washington. “If they’re smart, they’re going knocking on doors of whatever 10 airlines are considering buying narrowbody aircraft.”