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COMAC Struggl es to Juggl e Between ARJ21 and C919
By Izzie Lin, WCARN.com| J an. 07, 2014
Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, Ltd. (COMAC), the indigenous aircraft developer which China's
aviation sector has placed high hopes on, is now stuck in a predicament.
On the one hand, the project of the ARJ 21 regional plane, which the company has launched more than ten years
ago, has another year to go before delivery, when the market for such aircraft is already shrinking remarkably; on
the other hand, its core program-- the C919 trunk airliner -- is losing its edge against counterparts after delays due
to adjustment in design.
Currently, there has not been a plane maker in the world that has developed regional and trunk airplanes all at once
and seen good results. COMAC, however, seems determined to be the pioneer, which means the company will face
various challenges in terms of technologies, market, finance, human resources, etc. in the long run. Given that it's
still new in the field, this will not be easy.
Juggling Between Two Projects
"At present, all technical problems of the ARJ 21 have been taken care of and the main task of this year is to
complete all test flights needed for obtaining an airworthiness certificate", an insider with COMAC disclosed on J an.
2, adding that a major reason for the slow progress in flight testing at present is the bad weather.
The delivery of the aircraft was initially scheduled for 2007 and was pushed back several times as engineers
encountered problems in the development as well as certification process, including issues with emergency release
of the landing gear, a problemnot tackled until the March of 2013 and causing delays as well as safety concerns.
In order to make the ARJ 21 and C919 recognized worldwide, COMAC established its own airworthiness certification
center in 2009 and has since been carrying out tasks to get the aircraft certified by both the Civil Aviation
Administration of China (CAAC) and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the most authoritative institution
in setting standard for plane-making. The latter is conducting a shadow certification review of the ARJ 21. Though not
an official airworthiness certification, it is of significance in helping COMAC gain experience in related fields.
"As an emerging company, the inexperienced COMAC falls short on technologies and talents. It's difficult to run the
C919 and ARJ 21 projects simultaneously," admitted a senior figure in the industry. "There is no denying that the
C919 can draw on the experience gained through the ARJ 21 program. But the problemis that both projects are now
held up due to limited capacity of the company."
The maiden flight for the C919 has been pushed back to 2015 fromthe previously scheduled J une of 2014,
confirmed Luo Ronghuai, vice president of COMAC, at the 15th Aviation Expo held in Beijing in September last year,
which means the airliner will not reach customers until two years later in 2017.
Losing Edge Amid Delays
Although delays in aircraft manufacturing is quite normal, protracted time cycle for research and development has
enabled the potential rivals and the existing aviation giants to explore new technologies and make adjustment to their
market strategies, so as to hold on to their dominant position in the field.
As a result, the later entry into service, the more likely it is for the C919 and ARJ 21 to lose competitiveness.
Apart fromthe 30 planes ordered by its launch customer Chengdu Airlines (EU), other clients of the ARJ 21 aircraft
include GE Capital Aviation Services, Lao Airlines (QV), Shandong Airlines (SC), as well as some aircraft leasing
companies. Shenzhen Airlines (ZH) placed an order of up to 100 planes. According to Shi J ianzhong, deputy general
manager of COMAC, the ARJ 21-700 aircraft has secured 252 orders so far.
However, it's worth noting that, SC mainly operates Boeing 737 for the moment, which is similar in type with ARJ ,
and Bombardier CRJ planes with less than 100 seats are retiring. There are no regional jets operating in the fleet of
ZH yet. Moreover, the ARJ 21 lost an order which amounted to 40 planes fromMerpati Nusantara Airlines (MZ) two
years ago.
According to the company's current plan, the task for 2014 is mainly to obtain airworthiness certificate for the
ARJ 21. There is still a long way to go before it is put into production and finally delivered to its customers. Under the
current situation where new orders are hard to secure and existing ones face withdrawal, the commercial value of
the aircraft is expected to be severely compromised.
Meanwhile, the extra weight added to the C919 plane by the replacement of composite material with aluminumfor
fuselage has offset part of its cost efficiency advantages. What's more, compared with Boeing's brand new
single-aisle plane 737MAX and Airbus' A320NEO, C919 is outpaced in terms of both market basis and the aircraft
design.
Although C919 has acquired altogether 380 orders so far, mostly fromdomestic airlines and aircraft leasing
companies, COMAC still has a long way to go to challenge the industry giants.
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