Breakingviews - Made-in-China planes face bumpy flight abroad
HONG KONG, June 25 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Chinese factories may be making most of the world's ships and electric cars, but one thing remains out of reach for them: passenger planes. State-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, or Comac, wants to sell its C919 single-aisle jet to international airlines but it is better placed to chip away at the dominance of Western rivals Boeing (BA.N), opens new tab and Airbus (AIR.PA), opens new tab in the People's Republic.
Challenging the duopoly is slow work. Comac's long-delayed C919 - meant to compete with the Airbus 320 and Boeing 737 - only completed its first commercial flight in 2023. The Chinese company previously said it was aiming for the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to certify the plane this year - a crucial endorsement if Comac wants to sell in other markets.
To date, the manufacturer has built, opens new tab less than two dozen C919s, and it is hoping to ramp up annual production to 200 by 2029. Still, that would be less than a third of Airbus' output last year. Moreover, the process of winning European certifications can take up to six years.
Any attempt by Beijing to use next month's summit celebrating 50 years of diplomatic relations between the EU and the People's Republic to speed things up looks like it will be a hard sell even if President Xi Jinping's administration purchases Airbus planes as a sweetener. The bloc is already reeling from a surge of overall Chinese exports and the two sides have a long list of thorny trade issues to tackle spanning electric vehicles, French cognac and rare earths.
There are other hurdles to Comac's journey West. The company depends on imported components, including the C919's engine, for instance. That makes it vulnerable to U.S. President Donald Trump's export controls. Switching to domestic suppliers may also push back the EU certification process.
At least Comac has its home market, where the country's top airlines are all state-backed. In its Made in China 2025 policy document unveiled roughly a decade ago, the government laid out goals including having local manufacturers account for 10% of the domestic aircraft market by 2025 and even higher percentages for related equipment and components.
By 2044, China's domestic travel market will be the world's largest by traffic flow, Boeing estimated, opens new tabthis month, and the country's commercial fleet will more than double to 9,755, equivalent to 19% of the total. That should help make up for what will be a fraught journey overseas.
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