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You May Fly on a Made-in-China Aircraft Sooner Than You Think
While the
Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac) has yet to win any big
international orders with its C919 passenger airplane, you may be
flying on an aircraft manufactured by China's state-owned commercial
aerospace company sooner than you think.
John Leahy, chief
operating officer of Airbus said he believes Comac will emerge as a
serious competitor in the mainstream commercial aviation market over the
next 20 years.
"If you [ask], are we worried about competitors
in the next 10 years? The answer is no, not really. In 20 years, it's
almost a certainty," Leahy told CNBC at the Singapore Airshow.
"Remember,
Airbus was started in 1970, it took 20 years before we were just being
taken seriously, I think that would be the same with any manufacturer,
no matter the country behind that," he added.
So far, Comac has won 400 orders for the C919, the mainland's largest locally produced aircraft intended to compete with the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320.
ChinaFotoPress | Getty Images
The 'iron bird' test platform, a plane-like fuselage simulator, for the C919
The majority of customers for the
narrow bodied, single-aisle passenger airliner are still domestic
carriers such as Air China, China Southern Airlines, China Eastern
Airlines and Hainan Airlines.
This, however, did not appear to
be a concern for Comac. Tian Min, Comac's chief financial officer, said
the company's focus for the time being is the domestic market.
"We
realize the development of an airline takes a long time, so our
estimation, even though we don't have a plan yet to compete for the
market with Boeing and Airbus, is that may take us dozens of years," Min
said at a conference during the Singapore Airshow.
The C919's
will undertake its maiden test flight in 2015, one year later than
originally planned, with the first delivery scheduled for 2016.
David
Stewart, vice president of consultancy ICF International says even if
the C919 doesn't gain traction outside of China, the next aircraft they
manufacture will be a success.
"The
Chinese don't really worry about 10, or 20 years. It's where will they
be in 50 years' time. They are on a learning curve, and it doesn't
really matter to them how long it takes. At some point there will be ABC
- Airbus, Boeing, Comac," said Stewart, who expects Comac will begin to
present genuine competition to Boeing and Airbus in the next two
decades.
"They will break out of China with the C919, because
they know they have to develop their customer support infrastructure to
be able to support planes outside of China," he added.
It
wouldn't be a surprise to see C919's flying in Africa, said Stewart.
Beijing may make an investment into an African infrastructure project in
exchange for orders of the aircraft for example, he said.
"It's all part of a grand experiment to learn how to do this sort of thing, Africa could be a testing ground," Stewart said.
Comac's expansion into the global market, however, won't be without major challenges.
In
addition to overcoming negative perceptions over the safety of products
produced in the mainland, the company must set up a large amount of
infrastructure in order to support its fleet.
"Airlines exist on
having a reliable operation. To do that you have to have spares and
technical support in the right place, doing that in English, at a
distance, they don't have any track record at all on that, so that's
their biggest challenge," said Stewart.
—By CNBC's Ansuya Harjani. Follow her on Twitter: @Ansuya_H
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