(Reuters) – Chinese planemaker COMAC has actually repainted among its ARJ21 local jets with C909 branding, straightening with the maker’s calling conventions for its various other versions, according to pictures published on air travel lover discussion forums and Chinese social networks.
Although mainly symbolic, a feasible rebranding in advance of China’s major air program in Zhuhai following month signals Beijing’s expanding intent to emerge as a full-blown choice to Western aircraft titans Airbus and Boeing.
An ARJ21 aircraft was photographed with “C909” repainted on its blue tail at Shanghai Pudong airport terminal on Sunday by 2 customers of plane-spotting site jetphotos.com and one customer of planespotters.net, and various other photos of it showed up on Chinese social networks website Weibo on Monday.
Reuters has actually been incapable to separately validate the pictures. COMAC did not right away react to an ask for remark.
The ARJ21 went into solution in 2016 and is run by different Chinese airline companies and Indonesian provider TransNusa. But market experts claim the local airplane, China’s initial jet to get to industrial manufacturing, stays uncompetitive worldwide.
COMAC’s succeeding aircraft, the single-aisle C919, went into solution in 2023 and the planemaker has stated it is creating a twin-aisle aircraft called the C929. The business has actually likewise meant an also bigger C939 in the future.
The C929 was relabelled in 2023 from the CR929 after Russia left a China-Russia joint endeavor establishing it.
The photographed aircraft, repainted with enrollment number B-099A and production identification number 10156, comes from COMAC and is signed up as an ARJ21 examination trip airplane, according to Flightradar24 monitoring information.
On Monday it performed what seemed an examination trip from Shanghai Pudong airport terminal, Flightradar24 programs.
The International Civil Aviation Organization’s airplane kind designator data source still tapes COMAC’s local jet as the ARJ21. ICAO did not right away react to an ask for remark.
The method of relabeling versions to develop a solitary brand name prevails in air travel. Airbus in 2018 relabelled Bombardier’s CSeries the A220 after getting the program.
COMAC this year has actually boosted sales and manufacturing strategies and has actually been marketing its aircrafts outsideChina But market resources warn COMAC is a lengthy method from making invasions globally, specifically without benchmark qualifications from the EU – which COMAC is seeking for the C919 – or the UNITED STATE
(Reporting by Lisa Barrington in Seoul, Sophie Yu in Beijing and Tim Hepher in Paris; Editing by Jamie Freed)
