COMAC’s C919 is on its first trip outside Chinese territory in Singapore, and the Chinese planemaker is positioning the jet as a viable alternative to the Airbus A320neo and Boeing 737 MAX single-aisle jet families, as they struggle to meet demand for new planes, and Boeing grapples with a string of crises.
The plane is only certified within China and the first of now four C919s began flying with China Eastern Airlines last year.
COMAC has received more than 1,000 C919 orders so far, state media reported last September, mostly from Chinese airlines and lessors.
Gao Dongyue, an executive at Tibet Airlines, told Reuters that research to develop the C919 high-altitude variant was ongoing but that they could not yet disclose a timeline for the aircraft.
“We have a lot of experience in this area,” he said. “And we’re taking into consideration all possible routes that could be suitable for the plane.”
Tibet Airlines mainly flies domestically but also has routes to places such as Nepal’s capital Kathmandu.