Inside China’s C919, and why it’s great for short passengers – a reporter goes behind the scenes
- Production of China’s home-grown narrowbody jet is getting big upgrades and offering intensive training to pilots and cabin crew
- Dormitories and foreign-run flight simulators are in short supply, while steps are under way to make the C919 ‘an even more Chinese jet’
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China’s home-grown passenger jet C919 celebrates first anniversary of maiden flight
South China Morning Post economy reporter Frank Chen attended an organised media tour featuring China’s home-grown passenger jet, the C919, earlier this month. He recounts his first impressions and what caught his eye, from the production line to inside the cabin and how pilots and crew are trained.
At a sprawling assembly line that produces the narrowbody C919 passenger jet, its maker – the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac) – proudly boasts how automated and intelligent the manufacturing process will soon become.
Already, the Shanghai facility is surprisingly quiet and tidy, with just a small number of workers seen as a handful of journalists were escorted through.
A ticket has been hard to come by, due to the rarity of the jet and limited routes it flies. Just four C919s are in service with China Eastern Airlines – its first and currently sole operator – and it flies from Shanghai to Beijing, Chengdu and Xian.
But expansion plans are in the works to roll more off the line faster, and Comac explained during the tour this month that its ambitions include a new production line that will see airframe parts welded together on a massive conveyor belt – moving the C919’s assembly along at 1.5 to three metres per hour.
