China’s Comac Gets a Chance to Narrow Gap With Airbus and Boeing
Government backing can help the jetmaker land orders while its rivals are retrenching.
A Comac ARJ21 plane during a test flight for China Eastern Airlines at Shanghai Pudong International Airport.
Photographer: Yin Liqin/Getty Images
The coronavirus pandemic has upended the boom in global air travel that fueled the fortunes of Boeing Co. and Airbus SE over the past two decades. But as they lose orders and cut staff, the Chinese aerospace company hoping to challenge them is seeing an opening.
On July 10, Air China Flight 1109 took off from Beijing for a city in Inner Mongolia, the first time the country’s flag carrier flew a plane made by Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China (known as Comac), the state-owned manufacturer that until then had only managed to provide planes to third-tier carriers such as Genghis Khan Airlines. China Southern Airlines introduced a Comac aircraft a few days later.