China’s answer to Boeing and Airbus takes first international flight

China’s homegrown C919 airliner took off on its first scheduled international commercial flight on Wednesday, marking a milestone in the Chinese government’s efforts to develop a replacement aircraft. boeing and airbus.

According to Flightradar 24, the plane operated by Air China took off from Beijing Capital International Airport for Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, shortly after 3pm local time (3am Eastern time) and landed about two hours later. This is the first time a narrow-body aircraft has operated beyond Chinese territory.

Air China said the Beijing-Ulaanbaatar route will be operated daily.

The flight is another step in China’s efforts to establish its state-owned Civil Aviation Corporation of China (COMAC) as a competitor in the global passenger jet market dominated by U.S.-based Boeing and Europe’s Airbus.

However, the C919 still relies on foreign parts and is not certified by major aviation regulators in the United States or Europe, limiting its ability to win customers in many foreign markets.

“The production of COMAC’s C919 narrow-body airliner remains heavily dependent on foreign suppliers,” Andreas Mischer, an analyst at Mercator Research Institute for China (MERICS), told CNBC.

He highlighted the aircraft’s engines manufactured by CFM International, a joint venture between U.S.-based GE Aerospace and France’s Safran Aircraft Engines.

Mischer said COMAC also fell short of its “Made in China 2025” goal of having domestically produced large airliners capture 10% of China’s domestic market.

Nevertheless, COMAC increasingly exhibits its aircraft abroad. The C919 and smaller C909 will debut at the Dubai Air Show in November 2025, where COMAC said it wants to deepen its relationship with the global aviation industry.

The C919 is a single-aisle narrow-body airliner that can carry up to 174 passengers and is designed for the same broad market segment as Boeing’s 737 MAX and Airbus’ A320neo.

While China is one of the world’s largest aviation markets, giving COMAC a meaningful domestic customer base, domestic airlines continue to rely on Boeing and Airbus aircraft.

In May, China confirmed an order for 200 Boeing planes, engines and spare parts, demonstrating the country’s continued dependence on U.S. commercial jets despite Beijing’s support for COMAC.

COMAC has built up a significant backlog of orders, primarily from Chinese airlines and leasing companies, but production remains relatively low.

Mischer said Airbus delivered about 100 narrow-body aircraft to China in 2025 alone, while COMAC delivered a total of 32 C919s by the end of 2025. COMAC delivered eight more C919s in the first half of this year, he said.

Mischer said this puts the company a “long way” from its goal of producing 200 aircraft a year by 2029.

Scaling up production is only part of the challenge. COMAC also needs to persuade airlines to support the aircraft once it enters service.

“The pace of development and production of COMAC is too slow to truly compete with Airbus and Boeing,” Rob Morris, a now-retired aviation analyst, told CNBC.

“C919 could impact Airbus and Boeing sales in China, but the slow pace of implementation means it will take time,” he said. “I think the reason for that is passenger and airline acceptance.”

“It’s not enough just to develop, manufacture and deliver the aircraft. To ensure that the C919’s dispatch reliability is on par with the well-understood and well-established A320 and 737, (original equipment manufacturers) must provide 24/7 in-flight support. This takes time and is only proven through sustained service.”

Aircraft production is both complex and vulnerable to supply chain disruptions, and shortages of even relatively small parts can hinder the delivery of completed jets.

“How many parts does it take to make an airplane? The answer is everything,” Richard Aboulafia, managing director of Aerodynamic Advisory, told CNBC earlier this year. “Even if it was just a fastener, it means you can’t build an airplane.”

Aboulafia said this complexity could result in bottlenecks appearing at multiple layers of the supply chain, resulting in shortages of everything from engine and airframe parts to castings, forgings and fasteners.

Mischer pointed out that for COMAC to gain global competitiveness, it needs to strengthen its supply chain footing, significantly increase production capacity and achieve scale. “Still, it will be difficult to make a complex product like an airliner completely self-sustaining.”

Despite these hurdles, C919 was a significant achievement for China’s aerospace industry.

“The ability to integrate a vast array of components, systems and software to build a passenger aircraft is a feat achieved only by a handful of companies around the world, most notably Airbus and Boeing,” he said.

-CNBC’s Evelyn Cheng contributed to this report.