China’s top aviation regulator said Friday that it aimed to work jointly with U.S. authorities on certifying the planned new C919 passenger jet.
The aircraft is seen as the first shot in China’s effort to break the duopoly in large civil aircraft held by Airbus and Boeing Co. and securing approval from overseas regulators will be crucial in finding customers outside the country’s fast-growing domestic market.
Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China, or Comac, last month submitted a formal application with its domestic regulator to assess the C919, which is due to make its first flight in 2014 and enter service in 2016.
“We are going to have joint cooperation with the (U.S. Federal Aviation Administration) on certification of the C919,” said Li Jiaxiang, administrator of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, or CAAC.
The narrow-body C919, seating up to 190 passengers, would compete with the Airbus A320 family and Boeing’s 737, and the program has a slew of overseas partners, including Rockwell Collins Inc. and General Electric Co.
Comac hopes to sell more than 2,000 C919s and in November secured a 100-plane launch order from a group of Chinese carriers.
Li said in an interview in Chicago that he didn’t believe the rapid growth of China’s domestic airline industry would be depressed by the expansion of the country’s high-speed rail network.
Shares in China’s three largest airlines have fallen more than 10 percent since Chinese official last month announced the next phase of the rail expansion.
Li, a former head of Air China Ltd. who oversaw its initial public offering, described the networks as complementary and said he still expected passenger growth in the airline sector to outpace that in rail.
He noted that airline traffic on the Beijing-Llasa route had continued to rise despite the opening of a new high-speed rail line in 2008. He said some passengers opted to fly one way and take the train back.
However, analysts believe airline profits will be depressed by the rail expansion as fare competition intensifies.
Li said China will continue to focus on building up its aviation infrastructure, including new airports in Beijing and Shanghai.
He said Beijing’s international gateway is congested but said controls on takeoff and landing slots would wait until the second airport opened.
