Chinese manufacturer COMAC reached the milestone of the 100th delivery of an ARJ21 aircraft to a customer on Thursday last week, while celebrating the model’s entry into series production. The customer that took delivery of the 100th unit – and incorporated its second aircraft of the type – was Indonesia’s TransNusa Airlines.
The ARJ21 regional aircraft was developed in-house in China and has gone through the entire process of design, manufacturing, ground testing, flight testing, series production, delivery, and operation. To date, ARJ21 aircraft have been delivered to customers such as Chengdu Airlines – the model’s first operator, as of June 2016 – Jiangxi Airlines and Air China, opening 316 routes from 118 cities and carrying nearly 6 million passengers.
As reported by our partner site AEROIN, on December 18 the ARJ21 was delivered to its first overseas customer – TransNusa itself, marking the first entry into the export market for passenger jets developed in China. The delivered aircraft was configured with 95 seats, all in economy class.
COMAC obtained the production certificate for the ARJ21 in June 2017, and now has an annual production rate of 50 units. The aircraft, which can be configured with up to 105 seats, has a range of 3,700 kilometers and is aesthetically similar to the Boeing 717, arrived to position itself in the local market and will seek to give Airbus and Boeing a fight, especially in terms of costs and maintenance times.
Other airlines that received ARJ21s are China Express Airlines and Genghis Khan Airlines.
