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Ralph Jennings

China’s first home-grown narrowbody civilian aircraft flew to the capital of the Tibet autonomous region for the first time on Thursday, reaching one of the highest airports in the world known for its challenging weather patterns.
A C919 “smoothly landed” at Lhasa Gonggar Airport in far western China after travelling for about two hours from Chengdu in the southwestern Sichuan province, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.
The airport serving the Tibetan capital of Lhasa sits at around 3,650 metres (11,979 feet) above sea level in the Himalayan mountain region, giving it the moniker of the “roof of the world”.
Low air pressure means planes should be in top shape, Guangzhou-based aviation analyst Li Hanming said.
“The change of air pressure due to elevation requires extra performance to take-off and land safely,” Li said.
“The lower air pressure makes it harder for jet fuel to burn, thus reducing [an aircraft’s] thrust and negatively impacting aircraft performance.”


The C919 would conduct “research and development test flights” on the Tibetan plateau to check “key” systems, including avionics, the Xinhua added, referring to the on-board electronics systems for communications and navigation.
The aircraft would also receive “high-plateau airport adaptability inspections”.
In December, the Shanghai-based Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac) and the Lhasa-based Tibet Airlines agreed to develop a plateau-suited model of the aircraft.
Comac said in February that it had signed a deal with Tibet Airlines to make 40 of the narrowbody C919 designed for high-altitude plateaus.
The C919, which can carry between 158 passengers and 192 passengers is often regarded as China’s home-grown alternative to the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 families of aircraft.
The group of aircraft normally have “high-performance” engines with the extra speed needed for take-off and landing in low air density at high elevations and winglets to reduce drag that would hamper performance, said Hugh Ritchie, CEO of Aviation Analysts International in Australia.

Starting from last month, Comac’s smaller and older ARJ21 has also carried out “around the Qinghai-Tibet plateau” demonstration flights with Lhasa, Chengdu in Sichuan province and Xining in Qinghai province as its operating bases, according to Xinhua.
The ARJ21 had reached Daocheng Yading Airport, which is the highest civilian airport in the world at an elevation of 4,411 metres above sea level in Sichuan province.
The C919 first flew commercially in May last year, with Comac delivering its first planes to Air China and China Southern Airlines in August, having previously sold seven to China Eastern Airlines.
And China Southern Airlines used the C919 for the first time on Thursday for a flight between Guangzhou and Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China.
Comac is also eager to explore opportunities in the international passenger jet market that is largely controlled by Airbus and Boeing.


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C919 ‘smoothly landed’ at one of the highest airports in the world in western China on Thursday ahead of a series of ‘research and development test flights’


C919 ‘smoothly landed’ at one of the highest airports in the world in western China on Thursday ahead of a series of ‘research and development test flights’.
