Asian MROs See Opportunities For Comac C919

SINGAPORE—China Southern Airlines’ Comac C919 early operations are generating high dispatch reliability rates, says Guangzhou Aircraft Maintenance Engineering Co.’s (GAMECO) leader, speaking at Aviation Week Network’s MRO Asia-Pacific.

China Southern received its first C919 on Aug. 28 and started flying it in operational trials, before recently kicking off passenger operations from Guangzhou.

Air China also recently commenced C919 flights.

China Eastern was the C919 launch customer, with service beginning in May 2023. Since then, it has carried more than 500,000 passengers.

From an MRO view, “The problem with the C919 is that doesn’t break. From an airline’s view, of course, that’s awesome,” says Marc Szepan, GAMECO’s general manager.

While it is early days in China Southern’s C919 operations, “compared to other aircraft models, including Airbus and Boeing,” Szepan is not seeing the teething pains expected during the first weeks. “The C919 is holding up amazingly well—no problems whatsoever,” he adds.

“That speaks very much to the engineering capability at Comac, and it speaks to the ability to learn from the entry into service at China Eastern,” Szepan says.

Comac purportedly has made some system advancements to the C919 since its first delivered aircraft that have resulted in operational improvements.

Of the 16,889 firm orders for commercial aircraft worldwide, Comac aircraft represent 9% of the backlog, according to Aviation Week Network’s Fleet Discovery database. The Asia-Pacific region, including China and India, comprise about 40% of that total, with China alone representing 14% of the global total.

While the Airbus A320, Boeing 737 and C919 each have more than 1,000 firm orders in the region on backlog, with the A320 dominating according to Fleet Discovery, Szepan expects the C919 backlog to grow, including orders outside of China, “because the aircraft is performing really well.”

Raymond Leung, HAECO’s general manager for strategy development and the Greater Bay Area, says the C919 is a national initiative driven by the Chinese government—but he also thinks it “will be a good growth story” and says “it’s just a matter of time” before Comac receives its first international customer.

“As an MRO, we have a strategic view on assessing how we can help Comac enter into the international market,” he says.

Safran Nacelles, a 50% part of the Nexelle joint venture with ST Engineering that provides the C919 nacelle, sees “good, reliable deliveries coming off the line” at Comac, says Troy Smith, Safran Nacelle Services Suzhou general manager.

He sees the C919 ramp-up coming over the next two to three years.

“There’s a lot of pressure coming from Comac to have an MRO presence within China,” so components can be serviced within the country, he adds. This, he says, is an opportunity for companies wanting to look into the C919 MRO market.

China Eastern operates seven C919s, and China Southern and Air China each have one so far.