Summary
- Air China ordered 100 C919 aircraft, all the extended-range version, at a catalog price of US$108 million each.
- The delivery of C919 to Air China will start in 2024 and pose production capacity challenges for COMAC.
- China Southern Airlines is expected to announce an order for C919 aircraft, to align with the other two major Chinese airlines.
This past Friday evening, after trading hours on the Chinese stock market, Air China announced that it had signed an agreement with Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) on that day to purchase 100 C919 aircraft.
This is also the second time one of China’s three major state-owned airlines has signed an order to purchase C919 aircraft, following China Eastern Airlines‘ order of 100 C919 aircraft in September of last year.
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China Eastern Signs Agreement To Buy 100 COMAC C919s
The order marks the largest for the type and adds to China Eastern Airline’s existing order of five.
Catalog prices for the extended-range C919 have been announced for the first time
One noteworthy point from Air China’s announcement is that all 100 C919 aircraft ordered by the airline are of the extended-range version. In contrast, the 100 previously ordered by China Eastern Airlines were the basic version. Consequently, there’s a slight difference in the catalog prices between the two versions. The catalog price for the extended-range version is US$108 million, while the basic version is US$99 million.
Comparatively, the catalog price for a Boeing 737 MAX 8 or an Airbus A320NEO is approximately US$ 110-120 million, making the extended-range C919 about 10% cheaper than these models and the basic C919 about 20% cheaper.
Photo: DLeng / Shutterstock
However, in actual transactions, due to being in the early stages of market entry, COMAC might offer lower actual sales prices for the C919 compared to competitive models from Boeing and Airbus. The announcement from Air China also mentions:
“Through fair negotiations between the buyer and seller, COMAC has provided significant price discounts to Air China for the purchase of aircraft, so the actual price for this transaction is lower than the aforementioned catalog price per aircraft.”
According to information released on the official website of COMAC, the maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) of the extended-range version of the C919 reaches 78.9 tons, which is 3.8 tons more than the basic version’s 75.1 tons. The standard payload range of the extended-range version is 5,555 kilometers, 36% more than the basic version’s 4,075 kilometers.
Testing COMAC’s production capacity
In addition to price, the delivery schedule for the 100 C919 aircraft ordered by Air China is also a matter of concern to the industry. According to the announcement, these 100 C919s will be delivered in batches from 2024 to 2031, which aligns exactly with the delivery framework of China Eastern Airlines’ order for 100 C919 aircraft placed last September.
If Air China’s year-by-year delivery plan aligns with China Eastern Airlines, they will also receive 5-6 C919 aircraft in 2024. Additionally, based on the procurement history of the three major airlines on the ARJ21 project, another major player, China Southern Airlines, is likely to announce its procurement plan for the C919 soon. They will likely also place an order for 100 aircraft.
Photo: COMAC
Furthermore, HNA Group had previously signed an agreement with COMAC to purchase C919 aircraft. HNA Group’s subsidiary, Suparna Airlines, announced recently that it will receive its first C919 passenger aircraft in the fourth quarter of 2024, becoming the world’s first privately owned airline to operate the C919. Suparna Airlines plans to introduce a total of 30 C919 passenger aircraft by the end of 2027 to become an all-C919 fleet airliner. Tibet Airlines also ordered 40 C919 high-altitude aircraft at the Singapore Airshow in February of this year.
If all these ambitious orders are realized according to plan, they will pose significant challenges to COMAC’s C919 production capacity in 2024 and the following years. COMAC’s planned delivery quantity for the C919 this year may be around 20 aircraft, implying a growth expectation of 600%-700%. This is expected to further increase to approximately 40-70 aircraft per year from 2025 to 2027, reaching 100 around 2030.
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What To Expect From COMAC In 2024
2024 will be a year of both challenges and opportunities for COMAC, and it will be a crucial year for COMAC’s development.
On January 12th, 2023, Zhang Yujin, then the Vice President of COMAC and recently promoted to the position of President of China Ordnance Equipment Group, publicly stated,
“The C919 large aircraft will definitely accelerate production expansion and seize market share. The plan is to achieve an annual production capacity of 150 aircraft within the next five years.”
Do you think China Southern Airlines will announce a C919 order soon? Will China Southern order more? Where do you think the three major airlines will deploy the C919 aircraft? Please share your thoughts with Simple Flying.
