Chinese aircraft company wins orders to manufacture new aircraft at Singapore airshow

Chinese aircraft manufacturer Commercial Aircraft Corp of China (COMAC) has won orders to manufacture 56 aircraft including 40 self-developed narrow-body aircraft C919 at the Singapore Airshow, according to public information.

The order to buy 40 C919 aircraft was placed by Tibet Airlines, a Chinese airliner mainly operating flights in the plateau region. The carrier also ordered ten ARJ21, the regional jet brand of COMAC.

The new batch of 50 jets to be deployed in plateau areas indicates that China's homegrown aircraft has obtained the technological certitude in operating high altitude environments, sources from Tibet Airlines were quoted as saying by news portal ThePaper.

Being an important variant of the C919 prototype, the plateau model has a shortened fuselage and made modifications to meet the specific requirements for plateau region operation.

COMAC also received six orders of ARJ21 from Henan Civil Aviation Development & Investment Group on Tuesday, the first day of the largest aviation exhibition in Asia.

A total of five Chinese domestically made aircraft including the first C919 by COMAC are showcased at the Singapore Airshow that runs through Tuesday (February 20) until Sunday (February 25).

The C919 will have a steady capacity expansion this year, with tens of billions of yuan to be poured in the coming three to five years for capacity expansion, Zhang Yujin, vice-general manager of COMAC was quoted as saying by ThePaper earlier in January.