HONG KONG: Air China's eye-catching agreement to buy 100 domestically made C919 jets is expected to turn heads overseas and further elevate interest in the relatively new planes as the reputation of rival Boeing has been grounded by safety concerns.
The order size from China's flagship airline also ensures years of additional business for the C919's state-owned manufacturer, the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac), which could in turn attract investment and more purchases, according to analysts.
Air China, a Beijing-based carrier with 196 flight destinations including more than 60 overseas, said on Friday that it had signed an agreement with Comac to buy the C919s from this year through 2031.
Sweetening the deal, the airline said it had negotiated a "rather large price discount" off the listed total of US$10.8 billion for the order.
The purchase comes as Boeing - which makes up half of the US-European duopoly with Airbus - has been grappling with a series of safety scandals in recent months. In response, the US aviation regulator blocked Boeing from expanding production of its most popular plane, the 737 Max - a single-aisle, narrowbody design like the C919.
"The C919, in my opinion, is a major step forward, not only for China, but it [also] puts another player into the field internationally," said Hugh Ritchie, CEO of Aviation Analysts International in Australia. "There's a move away from 737s and Boeing."
Boeing has warned of possible delays in getting planes to customers as the 108-year-old company ramps up safety checks. And Airbus has postponed some deliveries to as late as 2025 because of supply-chain issues.
The C919 was designed in terms of body width to compete with the Boeing 737 family and Airbus' A320 line of narrowbody jets. It began commercial passenger flights in May.
Orders from Air China should solidify Comac's overall business, said Harry Murphy Cruise, an assistant director with Moody's Analytics.
"Air China's massive order of Comac C919s adds to the viability of the aircraft's future," he said. "Big orders like this create certainty for the manufacturer, encouraging extra investment in the production process."
A knock-on increase in production could prompt other airlines to order Comac's planes, Murphy Cruise said. "That's particularly true given the backlog of orders at Airbus and Boeing," he said.
Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines was the sole C919 customer until this month. Comac had previously said that its C919 orders exceeded 1,000 and came mostly from Chinese airlines.
Air China's deployment of C919s is expected to shore up attention for the aircraft worldwide, even though it lacks certification outside China. Comac has already been courting Southeast Asia buyers.
Airlines in other countries will watch how the aircraft performs in terms of cost, reliability and compatibility with the rest of their fleets as older planes are phased out, said Mayur Patel, the Asia head for industry data platform OAG Aviation.
"For foreign carriers, it's still sideline watching for reliability and all the other bits and pieces," Patel said.
The aircraft, which was in development for about 15 years, had been met with safety worries overseas.
China's "partners" in Africa or Southeast Asia will probably be among the first countries to buy C919s, Patel said, adding that purchases of the aircraft may be "stitched into" China's trade agreements with those partners.
But airlines still hesitate to mix aircraft types - a process that adds to maintenance and training costs, Murphy Cruise said. That concern, coupled with the C919's lack of certification outside China, will "slow progress on disrupting the current duopoly", he said.
