China’s Comac has unveiled stretched and shortened variants of its C919 narrowbody aircraft, which the OEM says are aimed at catering for the various operational requirements in and around China.

Named the C919 Stretched Variant and the C919 Shortened/Plateau Variant, the two concepts were revealed at the Shanghai International Commercial Aviation & Aerospace Industry Exhibition. Sizing up and down its standard narrowbody to create a family of aircraft for different requirements would replicate Airbus’ A320 family and Boeing’s 737 MAX family variations.

The standard C919 delivered to launch customer China Eastern Airlines has 164 seats across the business and economy cabins.

Comac says the C919 Stretched Variant “conforms to the trend of large-scale development of single-aisle aircraft market,” and seats 210 passengers in a two-class layout.  

The Shortened/Plateau configuration has takeoff and landing performance to cover all of China’s high-altitude airports and can seat 140 passengers. Comac adds it has “good potential” for further derivatives.

Aviation Daily understands the concepts are still in their early stages and technical information is not yet available.

Meanwhile, China says the Comac ARJ21 has carried more than 10 million passengers. The regional jet passed the milestone when a China Southern Airlines ARJ21 recently took off on the Guangzhou-Jieyang route. The ARJ21 is now estimated to be flying 1,800 weekly services around China and Indonesia.