The first step in the development of China’s self-developed C919 narrow-body passenger jet, the first to compete with Boeing and Airbus for global industry, has been ordinary airlines between Shanghai and Hong Kong since the beginning of 2025.  ,
Aircraft MU721, carrying 157 people, took off from Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport at 8: 21 am on January 1, marking the indigenously-assembled plane’s first international flight. In China, trip roads between Chinese places and Hong Kong are categorized as “international”.
Hong Kong becomes the ninth area on which China Eastern Airlines often operates C919 industrial planes and the first city outside the Chinese mainland with the beginning of the MU721 route.
The new company offers opportunities for users in other countries to learn more about the C919’s performance, according to Wang Yanan, the chief writer of the Beijing-based Aerospace Knowledge magazine, given Hong Kong’s significant international transportation hub.
The company plans to deploy the C919 for use in commercial flights between China and Southeast Asia in 2026, according to Yang Yang, deputy general manager of the state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China ( Comac )’s marketing center.
” We want to enhance the functional deployment of C919 aircraft in China,” Yang said,” to thoroughly examine any possible issues before extending to Southeast Asia.”
Comac showcased its ARJ21 and C919 at the Singapore Airshow next February. Indonesia’s TransNusa started using the ARJ21 in a Manado-Guangzhou journey last October and was apparently considering using the C919 in the future.  ,
Comac said next November that its C929, a long-range 250-to-320-seat wide-body twin-jet aircraft, was still in its initial design phase. Chinese internet said the C919 aims to engage with France’s Airbus A320 and America’s Boeing 737 while the C929 may compete with the A330, A350 and 787.
The C919’s creation began in 2008 with the release of the first design in November 2015. The Civil Aviation Administration of China, the nation’s civil aviation authority, issued a flying license in September 2022 after making its first journey in May 2017.
Although praised as dessert, 40 % of the plane’s parts are imported. Its manufacturers include large American companies like Collins Aerospace, Honeywell, and Thales.
Its high-bypass turbofan engine, known as the leading edge aviation propulsion ( LEAP-1C), is made by CFM International, a 50-50 joint venture between America’s GE Aviation and France’s Safran Aircraft Engines.
It hasn’t been all obvious stars for the aircraft. A C919 plane operated by China Eastern Airlines had to reduce its voyage and land at Beijing Capital International Airport on February 1, 2023 when one of its engines failed to activate the put reverser, which is designed to decrease the aircraft.  ,
In spite of this, the plane made its first corporate flight to Beijing in May 2023 from Shanghai. The Shanghai-Beijing way became a normal support in January 2024.  ,
Foreign observers appear to have focused more on supply chain issues than health issues.  ,
” Simply when its self-developed CJ1000A website is available for use in C919, China may no longer have to worry about the West’s systems ban”, Xiao Pang, a Henan-based blogger, says in an article.
He says the CJ1000A website has a force of 14.5 lots, exceeding that of LEAP-1C, and will be available for use in the C919 in 2025. He says, CJ2000, a more effective engine, will be used in the C929 some years later.
It’s unclear whether Comac will make a rush effort to replace the CJ1000A with the LEAP-1C because a single incident will destroy international customers ‘ faith in Chinese plane.  ,
In 2016, Comac and Russia‘s United Aircraft Corporation ( UAC ) signed a memorandum of understanding for a program to develop a wide-body twin-jet airliner called CR929.  ,
Previous studies stated that UAC would concentrate only on China’s markets while Comac would concentrate solely on domestic markets.  ,
However, the task foundered on conflicts. According to Chinese experts, UAC requited to have a share of China’s domestic airplane areas. After the relationship ended in 2023, China renamed the CR929 as C929.  ,
Individually, China had also tried to obtain aircraft engine tech from Ukraine.
Again in 2015, four Chinese firms, including Skyrizon Aircraft and Xinwei Technology, reportedly purchased a 56 % interest in Ukraine’s Motor Sich, which produced the D-18T website, a high-bypass turbofan with a force of 23 lots, for use in transport plane An-124 and An-225.
In 2016, Aerospace Industry Corporation of China ( AICC ) and Ukraine’s Antonov signed an agreement on a project to produce the An−225.
The four Chinese firms were sanctioned by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in February 2021 because they feared that Motor Sich’s aircraft engine systems may be transferred to China for military usage.
In November of the same year, Zelenskyy used military laws to nationalize the Zaporizhia-based Motor Sich, which is still under the protection of Russian army, after the Ukraine conflict broke out in February 2022.
A number of reports that claimed China is capable of replicating the D-18T were published online in China last November.  ,
An Anhui-based writer , said that , with the D-18T, China’s military transport plane Y-20 does have its pulling power fit with the An-124 and also increase its range to 6, 000 kilometers. A Chongqing-based blogger said China can use the D-18T technology to improve the design of the CJ1000 website.  ,
China Hangtie Group Co ( CAGC), a state-owed company, said in footage circulated on social media in May 2022 that it was going to dismantle the Antonov An-225 Mriya, the world’s largest and most powerful transport aircraft, which was shot down by Russian troops in April. According to reports, the plane’s six D-18T machines were in good condition.  ,
Eventually, CAGC removed the video from the Internet. China’s Paper.cn said there was no proof that any Chinese company had obtained the An-225.  ,  ,
Yong Jian contributes to the Asia Times. He is a Chinese columnist who specializes in Chinese technologies, economy and politics.  ,