CEO Dave Calhoun claims Airbus and Comac competitive threats are overplayed, and says OEM will need until at least 2035 to bring a new aircraft to market.
Russia is discussing ways for it to stay in its last international aircraft program—the joint development of Sino-Russian CR929 widebody commercial aircraft.
China is in the process of developing new facilities for COMAC in Shanghai, laying the foundations for the state-owned airframer to one day take on the global powerhouses.
A China Eastern subsidiary set up to fly Comac aircraft will serve coastal districts from the Yangzi River Delta and retain the business aviation operation on which it has been based, the parent company said.
Flight testing of the COMAC C919 has exceeded the designed cruise speed of the narrowbody airliner and reached its intended ceiling, with the fleet of six prototypes now complete.
Under development for 12 years, the first production 90-seat ARJ21 airliner has now been officially delivered to launch customer, Chengdu Airlines, arriving at the carrier’s Shuangliu International Airport base on November 29, 2015 following a 2 hour 48 minute delivery flight from the COMAC facility in Shanghai.