A state project with a long memory

COMAC was born of a government decision. On 26 February 2007 the State Council under Premier Wen Jiabao approved a national large-aircraft programme, and on 11 May 2008 the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China was set up in Shanghai with registered capital of RMB 19 billion. Its shareholders were the aviation group AVIC, the state assets regulator SASAC, the city’s investment arm and the aluminium, steel and chemicals giants. Its final assembly line stood at Dachang, where its predecessor, the Shanghai Aircraft Manufacturing Factory, had assembled McDonnell Douglas airliners and the Y-10, China’s first home-grown jetliner attempt of the 1970s and 1980s.

The regional jet first

COMAC’s first product was inherited. The ARJ21 regional jet had been started in 2002 by an AVIC-led consortium that was folded into COMAC in 2008. It carries 78 to 90 passengers on a wing designed with help from Antonov and two American GE CF34 engines. It first flew on 28 November 2008, won Chinese certification only in December 2014 and entered service with Chengdu Airlines on 28 June 2016. Renamed the C909 in November 2024, it has since gone to TransNusa of Indonesia, Lao Airlines and VietJet, and 210 had been delivered by March 2026.

The C919: late, costly, flying

The C919 was the real ambition: a 158 to 168-seat rival to the A320 and 737. Launched in 2008 with a first flight targeted for 2014, it flew on 5 May 2017 and was certified by China’s regulator on 29 September 2022. Its announced budget was RMB 58 billion, but its cost has been estimated at well over RMB 125 billion. On 28 May 2023 China Eastern flight MU9191 carried the first fare-paying passengers from Shanghai to Beijing. By December 2024 the 16 C919s in service had flown more than a million passengers, and a shortened C919-600 flew on 29 July 2026.

Sanctions and spies

Self-reliance has limits. The C919 flies on CFM LEAP-1C engines and many Western systems, and the domestic CJ-1000A engine is not expected in daily service before about 2028. In January 2021 Washington named COMAC a company controlled by the People’s Liberation Army, and in May 2025 it briefly suspended LEAP-1C sales. American prosecutors say hackers of the Jiangsu state security bureau stole data from C919 suppliers between 2010 and 2015; in November 2022 a Jiangsu officer, Xu Yanjun, was convicted in the US of economic espionage and later jailed for 20 years. Claims that COMAC copied Western designs remain disputed.

Going abroad and going wide

Outside China, certification is the barrier. COMAC has worked with Europe’s EASA since 2020, but EASA said in 2025 that progress had been slow, and EASA test pilots flew verification flights in Shanghai only in January 2026. Air China flew the first scheduled international C919 service, Beijing to Ulaanbaatar, on 13 August 2026. A planned wide-body with Russia’s UAC, the CR929, became a purely Chinese C929 in 2023, with Air China named launch customer in 2024. COMAC wants to build 150 airliners a year; it delivered 15 C919s to the big three Chinese airlines in 2025.

Fabrikalar

• Final assembly centre, Pudong base · Shanghai Pudong International Airport — Shanghai Aircraft Manufacturing Co.; C919 assembly with its own runway
• Dachang base · Dachang airfield, Shanghai — Old Shanghai Aircraft Manufacturing Factory line; closed 20 January 2021 after the last ARJ21
• Flight test centre · Dongying, Shandong, and Zhuqiao, Shanghai — Opened 2016
• Jiangxi production and flight test centre · Yaohu airport, Nanchang — Completed 24 April 2021
• Design and research centre · Shanghai — Shanghai Aircraft Design and Research Institute, founded 30 November 2009

İnsanlar

• He Dongfeng · chairman — Announced the C919 short and stretched variants in 2023

Rekorlar ve ilkler

• First C919 revenue flight, China Eastern MU9191, Shanghai Hongqiao to Beijing, 28 May 2023
• First scheduled international C919 service, Air China, Beijing to Ulaanbaatar, 13 August 2026
• C919 fleet passed one million revenue passengers by December 2024