Why China’s C919 is years away from flying in the US, Europe but not other regions

Bilateral aviation-safety agreements exist between Chinese and Western aviation authorities to help certify the airworthiness of passenger jets, but there are more factors at play

Stigma against ‘made-in-China’ products, along with geopolitics, could keep the C919 constrained to China and countries with closer ties

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China’s C919 passenger jet is expected to be put into service domestically over the coming months. Photo: AFP

Published: 8:00pm, 5 Feb 2023Updated: 9:16am, 6 Feb 2023

It could take years for China’s first home-grown narrow-body passenger jet to be certified by American and European aviation regulators, according to analysts.

But in the meantime, the C919 will still be flown both domestically and in other regions as Beijing presses on with efforts to urgently advance its aerospace manufacturing capabilities and compete with Boeing and Airbus.

The plane is expected to come into service domestically this spring after it was certified by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) in September.

Before entering commercial service, the C919 is undergoing 100 hours worth of test flights. After a brief hiatus for the Lunar New Year holiday, the flight-validation process resumed on January 28 with a flight from Shanghai to Nanchang, Jiangxi province.

The maker of the C919, the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac), also has a regional jet – the ARJ21 – that has been in service since 2015 but has yet to be certified by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).

This is despite there being bilateral aviation-safety agreements set up among the two regulators and the CAAC for a certification validation that would allow Chinese-made aerospace products to be exported to the US and the EU based on mutual recognition of the certification process.