China’s C919 jet faces chaos in the skies amid US-China Trade Tensions

Hong Kong (AP) – China’s desire to challenge Boeing and Airbus with its passenger jets at home is running rampant, with deliveries of the completed planes likely to be announced this year.

The C919 Jet – a single-aisle passenger plane aimed at rivaling Boeing’s 737 and Airbus’ A320 – is made by state-owned aircraft maker Comac. Beijing shows it as proof of China’s technological progress and progress in manufacturing, although it uses many things that belong to the western empire.

Trade tensions with Washington threaten to prevent COMAC from acquiring key components of a program backed by massive Chinese government subsidies.

“You are facing a big risk in a volatile policy environment, with available chains that are vulnerable to exports and TIT-for-Zenglein measures,” said Max J. Zenglein, Asia Jacific Sellgen, Asia-Pacific Sellgen, Asia-Pacific Economon Economist on the board of the think tank.

C919 has 48 major suppliers from the US – including GE, Honeywell and Collins – 26 from Europe and 14 from China, according to analysts, according to analysts at Bank of America. Trump threatened to cool new export controls on “sensitive” software in China after Beijing imposed more general export controls on the exotic world.

“The existing points are being exploited in the process of doing things between governments,” said Zenglein. “This is likely to continue as critical dependence has become political bargaining chips.”

Beijing has high hopes for the C919, making it its first commercial airliner by 2023. The medium-sized jet is designed to help fill a huge domestic demand for new aircraft over the next few decades. China hopes to increase sales beyond its borders and fly around the world, including Southeast Asia, Africa and Europe.

Comac delivered 13 C919s to Chinese carriers last year and only seven since October this year, despite plans to increase production and deliver applications consultancy Cirium.

China’s largest state-owned airlines – Air China, China Eastern and China Southern – have only commercial aircraft flying about 20 C919s.

Trade tensions between the US and China have “directly affected” delivery schedules for the C919, said Dan Taylor, head of consultancy at Aviation Consultancy IBA. In other cases, the exit strategies were interrupted when the licenses were sent and the licenses were sent again for the export engines of the Jet-1C around, they recalled them in July, he said.

US-controlled technology that requires export licenses for stealth engines — jointly developed by the US’s Ge Aerospace and France’s SAFRAN — means the C919’s engines need to be able to be exported, Taylor said, making it “sensitive to political shifts.”

“The engine and avionics dependence on western suppliers continues to expose the system to policy decisions beyond COMAC’s control,” explained Taylor.

Geopolitical issues alone are not the only reason for the slower than expected production of C919s. The program is “marked with caution and prioritizing quality and safety, so there can be some reasons for low product performance,” Zenglein told the conference board.

While “it has always been the goal to reduce the reliance on foreign components as quickly as possible” with the C919, Zenglein said, many analysts say it is a challenging process. China’s own alternative – the CH-1000A developed by Aero ENGANI ENIGE China (AECC) – is still being tested, according to the IBA.

Several airlines outside of China, including AirAsia, have expressed interest in flying the C919, but the lack of international certification has already prevented the C919 from traveling through China beyond China. Certifications from US and European Union Avialators can take years.

For the C919 to be successful, “he needs to have each of the three things: good economics, a network of product support for the product, it means a certificate from the security agency”, said Richard Aboulafia, managing director of Aerodynamic consulting. “Any one of those three alone doesn’t mean much,” he said.

China will need 9,570 new passenger planes between 2025 and 2044, according to Airbus’s latest market forecast, more than 80% of which are Jets like the C919.

Comac faces a growing challenge from Airbus, which is increasing its production capacity in China. The second assembly line will start operating in 2026, allowing Airbus to increase its production of A320 ainger Jets in China – an aircraft model similar to the C919.

Analysts expect it will take years for Comac to break the Boeing-Airbus duopoly in global aircraft distribution. In the late 2020s, comacs are likely to grow within China and could establish regional exports, said Iba’s Taylor.

In the near term, the lack of international certification will mean that any Western-Market entry “reasonable” to the flexibility of the management of thermometers will probably continue to reduce their expansion plans around the world, Taylor added.