The first Chinese-made regional jet will begin production at the end of June, according to a Shanghai company that is designing and will produce the plane.
The jet, named ARJ21, will then be put into test use in 2005 and is expected to get approval for commercial use in 2007, according to Shanghai-based AVIC I Commercial Aircraft Co. Ltd.
"We are trying to become a competitive regional jet maker in the world," a company official told Shanghai Daily yesterday. "We'll first target domestic customers and then sell them to foreign air carriers."
The company expects to sell about 500 ARJ21 jets in the next 20 years with 300 of them going to Chinese airlines, according to Chen Jin, vice general manager of ACAC.
The aircraft, which has two models seating 79 passengers and 99 passengers respectively, is designed to meet demanding geographic conditions in western parts of China where current planes have to reduce their loads due to the hot weather and high altitudes.
"We don't worry about the sales since the jets will also be applied to other countries which boast better natural conditions than China's western regions," said the official.
Regional jets refer to small planes carrying between 30 and 120 passengers and serving regional services on which passenger volumes are smaller than those on trunk lines.
China used to purchase them from foreign aircraft makers like Brazilian-based Embraer Aircraft Corporation and Canadian-based Bombardier Inc.
Industry insiders believe there'll be a growing demand for such planes in China due to the country's push to develop its western regions.
"The massive plan of tapping the relatively undeveloped western provinces will increase the economic activities between the east and west, which poses great opportunities for regional jets," said Guan Dongyuan, director for Embraer's China business.
Embraer, one of the world's top plane makers, signed an agreement with a unit of China Aviation Industry Corporation II at the end of last year to produce its ERJ145 regional jets.
"We'll finish the first jet and begin to sell by the year's end," said Guan.
Meanwhile, the country is also planning to build 42 civil-use airports, most of which will be used by small aircraft.
Currently, there are more than 80 such planes in China, accounting for 13.4 percent of all the 580-plus civil-use fleet, compared with more than 30 percent of regional jets in global aircraft fleets.
The brazilian aviation giant estimates that Chinese airlines will need about 640 regional jets in the following two decades.
(eastday.com March 4, 2003)
