Image credits: AFP

China delivers first self-made passenger plane

This Friday (9), China delivered the C919, the first aircraft of its own production, which competes with the Boeing 737 MAX and the Airbus A320. The plane has capacity for 164 passengers and was handed over to China Eastern Airlines in a ceremony at Shanghai airport.

It is “an important milestone” in the trajectory of China's aviation industry, according to state channel CCTV, which showed images of the plane with the airline's emblem and its interior.

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Despite the intention to compete with Western manufacturers, China signed a $17 billion deal to buy planes from Airbus this year and the company began producing the A321 model in the northeastern city of Tianjin last month.

The Boeing 737 MAX has been banned from flying in China since 2019 after two fatal crashes, but the company said in July that Chinese regulators could approve its distribution this year.

Negotiations, however, have been slowed by trade tensions between Beijing and Washington and the worst commercial plane crash in China, involving a Boeing 737-800 this year.

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(With AFP)

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