First Chinese analogue of Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 narrow-body jet airplane C919 was delivered to the customer and made flight

Commercial flights airplane should start next week.

China Eastern Airlines Corp. company received first passenger airplane C919 of Chinese production as it was promised back in October. This is analogue of narrow-body Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 and also of Russian MC-21 and SSJ New.

Narrow-body airplane was delivered to China Eastern in the International Airport Pudong in Shanghai and then made short flight to city airport Hongqiao. C919 built by Commercial Aircraft Corp of China Ltd. Company is one of five airplanes ordered by China Eastern with delivery till 2023. Commercial flights it has to begin next spring. Airplane got construction certificate in November but manufacturer Comac hasn’t presented details how many airplanes will be made each month.

Airplane offers 164 seats in two cabins, including 8 in the business class and also 20 opening screens for playing video. Middle seat in each row is by 1.5 centimeters wider than neighboring seats. According to Comac web-site C919 may accommodate from 158 to 192 passengers.

China Eastern earlier informed that airplane costs 90 million USD. Expenses for similar size series of Airbus A320neo and Boeing 737 Max family are not publishing but earlier similar airplanes have been estimated from 111 to 122 million USD. Four main aviation groups of China have about 2200 airplanes Airbus and Boeing.

Among Comac suppliers are General Electric Co., Honeywell International Inc. and CFM International Inc., joint venture GE и Safran SA. As to the end of June China Eastern fleet counted 750 airplanes including 357 units of A320 and 288 units of Boeing 737.