China delivered its ARJ21 home-grown passenger jetliner to Indonesian airline TransNusa, bringing the jet into a foreign market for the first time.
The jetliner has been manufactured by the Chinese state-owned aerospace Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC).
The ARJ21 jetliner marks the entry of China’s indigenously developed passenger aircraft into the international markets, breaking the Airbus-Boeing duopoly.
“The delivery also carries significance in terms of China’s Belt and Road Initiative and dual-circulation strategy,” COMAC said in a statement on its website.
ARJ21 aircraft features
- With an outer appearance painted yellow, blue and green, ARJ21 is designed with 95 economy class seats, according to its manufacturer.
- Standard ARJ21 has a flight range of 2,225km and 3,700km.
- It can fly in alpine and plateau regions, and the aircraft is also adaptive to various airport conditions.
COMAC, which has also manufactured the well-known narrow-body C919 aircraft, has so far built and delivered about 100 ARJ21 jetliners to its clients. The planes are operating on more than 300 air routes, connecting over 100 cities, and transporting more than 5.6 million passengers, said COMAC.
The aircraft entered commercial operations after obtaining a production certificate from the Civil Aviation Administration of China in 2017.
Delayed delivery
China’s Everbright Group ordered 30 COMAC ARJ21-700 in January last year to lease them to Indonesian low-cost carrier TransNusa through AVIC Leasing. The Indonesian airline was initially scheduled to commission the plane in late 2021 but the delivery was deferred due to the pandemic and the suspension of TransNusa flights, according to Switzerland-based aviation intelligence provider ch-aviation.com.
Excluding the newcomer, TransNusa has three aircraft in its fleet, all Airbus A320-200s leased from aircraft lessors.
Indonesia is the second-fastest-growing aviation market in the world after China, in terms of its aircraft purchases and trade value, according to the data shared on Statista.