40 BEIJING REVIEW FEBRUARY 13, 2020 http://www.bjreview.comBUSINESS MARKET WATCH
T
he skies over China are becoming more
dynamic as the domestic air transport
industry takes off and the country boosts
its capacity for developing civil aircraft.
In 2020, China will embrace more domesti-
cally developed civil airplane models in its effort
to develop two trunk airliner and two regional
airplane models, namely the C919 narrow-body
and the CR929 wide-body jetliners, as well as
the ARJ21 regional jet and Modern Ark series
turboprop aircraft.
As the world’s second largest civil aviation
market, China continues to generate power
from independent development and contribute
to the world with a booming market.
China’s MA700 aircraft is set to take to
the sky in 2020, becoming the third member
of the domestically developed Modern Ark
regional turboprop family, according to its
developer AVIC XAC Commercial Aircraft Co.
Ltd. based in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province in north-
west China.
Work for both the maiden flight and
static tests are underway, said the Aviation
Industry Corp. of China (AVIC), adding that theĶUVW0$DLUSODQHLVVFKHGXOHGWRUROORIIWKH
production line in mid-2020.
The 70-seater model highlights short- and
medium-haul market performance, with an
aim to serve the country’s booming air traffic
demand.
The Modern Ark series has two existing
members, the MA60 and MA600, with a total of
109 airplanes delivered to customers to date.
As an upgraded version, the MA700 will
be capable of serving operators in complex
environments, such as China’s vast western re-
gions with extreme temperatures, plateaus and
mountains.
The ARJ21, China’s first turbo-fan regional
passenger jetliner, is also the country’s first
domestically developed jet to have completed
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batch production, delivery and commercial op-
eration.
The aircraft went into commercial service
in June 2016, and has carried a total of 690,000
passengers on 37 air routes. In January, it won
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Award, which is among China’s top science andtechnology awards.
In addition, on October
26, 2019, the ARJ21 started
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between the northeastern
Chinese city of Harbin,
Heilongjiang Province,
and Vladivostok in Russia’s
Far East. According to the
Commercial Aircraft Corp. of
China (COMAC), it currently
links 38 cities in China and
abroad.
The C919 and CR929
jetliner projects are also on
track. In 2020, the C919
narrow-body jet will undergo
intensive flight tests of all
six test aircraft at four sites
around China, COMAC said.
The twin-engine C919,
starting in 2008, is China’s
first independently devel-
oped trunk aircraft, which
conducted its maiden
flight on May 5, 2017. In
addition, the sixth test
plane of the series com-
pleted its maiden flight on
December 27, 2019.
With all tests and verification work for the
C919 ongoing, parts production has started
and orders for major systems had been issued,
COMAC added.
The China-Russia joint CR929 wide-body
passenger aircraft project has entered the
detailed design phase, which is the Chinese part
of the project, according to COMAC.
New moves by major players in the
Chinese civil aircraft industry echo the country’s
strengthening capacity and global competence
in the civil aviation sector.
In 2019, the country’s civil aviation gener-
ated 1.06 trillion yuan ($155 billion) in revenue,
up 5.4 percent.
China is expected to become the world’s
largest aviation market by the mid-2020s, ac-
cording to forecasts by the International Air
Transport Association.QThis is an edited version of the article published
by Xinhua News Agency
Copyedited by Rebeca Toledo
Comments to [email protected]0RUHó+RPHJURZQó&LYLOó3ODQHVóWRó6WDUWó)OLJKWóLQóó
An MA-60 aircraft for remote sensing developed by AVIC XAC Commercial Aircraft Co. Ltd. is delivered to the Chinese Academy of Sciences
on November 27, 2019, in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province in northwest ChinaXIN
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