COMAC is developing both the ARJ21 regional jet and the larger C919 jet simultaneously, but is facing challenges juggling the two projects. The ARJ21 has faced many delays and is still undergoing flight testing for certification. Its market is shrinking as it will not be delivered until late 2014 at the earliest. The C919 maiden flight has also been pushed back a year to 2015, delaying customer deliveries. These delays are allowing competitors like Boeing and Airbus to improve their offerings and maintain their dominance in the market. COMAC lacks experience and must improve its technology and talent to successfully develop both jets at once, a difficult task no other manufacturer has accomplished.
COMAC is developing both the ARJ21 regional jet and the larger C919 jet simultaneously, but is facing challenges juggling the two projects. The ARJ21 has faced many delays and is still undergoing flight testing for certification. Its market is shrinking as it will not be delivered until late 2014 at the earliest. The C919 maiden flight has also been pushed back a year to 2015, delaying customer deliveries. These delays are allowing competitors like Boeing and Airbus to improve their offerings and maintain their dominance in the market. COMAC lacks experience and must improve its technology and talent to successfully develop both jets at once, a difficult task no other manufacturer has accomplished.
COMAC is developing both the ARJ21 regional jet and the larger C919 jet simultaneously, but is facing challenges juggling the two projects. The ARJ21 has faced many delays and is still undergoing flight testing for certification. Its market is shrinking as it will not be delivered until late 2014 at the earliest. The C919 maiden flight has also been pushed back a year to 2015, delaying customer deliveries. These delays are allowing competitors like Boeing and Airbus to improve their offerings and maintain their dominance in the market. COMAC lacks experience and must improve its technology and talent to successfully develop both jets at once, a difficult task no other manufacturer has accomplished.
COMAC is developing both the ARJ21 regional jet and the larger C919 jet simultaneously, but is facing challenges juggling the two projects. The ARJ21 has faced many delays and is still undergoing flight testing for certification. Its market is shrinking as it will not be delivered until late 2014 at the earliest. The C919 maiden flight has also been pushed back a year to 2015, delaying customer deliveries. These delays are allowing competitors like Boeing and Airbus to improve their offerings and maintain their dominance in the market. COMAC lacks experience and must improve its technology and talent to successfully develop both jets at once, a difficult task no other manufacturer has accomplished.
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On the one hand, the project of the ARJ 21 regional plane, which the company has launched more than ten years ago, has another year to go before delivery, when the market for such aircraft is already shrinking remarkably; on the other hand, its core program-- the C919 trunk airliner -- is losing its edge against counterparts after delays due to adjustment in design. Currently, there has not been a plane maker in the world that has developed regional and trunk airplanes all at once and seen good results. COMAC, however, seems determined to be the pioneer, which means the company will face various challenges in terms of technologies, market, finance, human resources, etc. in the long run. Given that it's still new in the field, this will not be easy. Juggling Between Two Projects "At present, all technical problems of the ARJ 21 have been taken care of and the main task of this year is to complete all test flights needed for obtaining an airworthiness certificate", an insider with COMAC disclosed on J an. 2, adding that a major reason for the slow progress in flight testing at present is the bad weather. The delivery of the aircraft was initially scheduled for 2007 and was pushed back several times as engineers encountered problems in the development as well as certification process, including issues with emergency release of the landing gear, a problemnot tackled until the March of 2013 and causing delays as well as safety concerns. In order to make the ARJ 21 and C919 recognized worldwide, COMAC established its own airworthiness certification center in 2009 and has since been carrying out tasks to get the aircraft certified by both the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the most authoritative institution in setting standard for plane-making. The latter is conducting a shadow certification review of the ARJ 21. Though not an official airworthiness certification, it is of significance in helping COMAC gain experience in related fields. "As an emerging company, the inexperienced COMAC falls short on technologies and talents. It's difficult to run the C919 and ARJ 21 projects simultaneously," admitted a senior figure in the industry. "There is no denying that the C919 can draw on the experience gained through the ARJ 21 program. But the problemis that both projects are now held up due to limited capacity of the company." The maiden flight for the C919 has been pushed back to 2015 fromthe previously scheduled J une of 2014, confirmed Luo Ronghuai, vice president of COMAC, at the 15th Aviation Expo held in Beijing in September last year, which means the airliner will not reach customers until two years later in 2017. Losing Edge Amid Delays Although delays in aircraft manufacturing is quite normal, protracted time cycle for research and development has enabled the potential rivals and the existing aviation giants to explore new technologies and make adjustment to their market strategies, so as to hold on to their dominant position in the field. As a result, the later entry into service, the more likely it is for the C919 and ARJ 21 to lose competitiveness. Apart fromthe 30 planes ordered by its launch customer Chengdu Airlines (EU), other clients of the ARJ 21 aircraft include GE Capital Aviation Services, Lao Airlines (QV), Shandong Airlines (SC), as well as some aircraft leasing companies. Shenzhen Airlines (ZH) placed an order of up to 100 planes. According to Shi J ianzhong, deputy general manager of COMAC, the ARJ 21-700 aircraft has secured 252 orders so far. However, it's worth noting that, SC mainly operates Boeing 737 for the moment, which is similar in type with ARJ , and Bombardier CRJ planes with less than 100 seats are retiring. There are no regional jets operating in the fleet of ZH yet. Moreover, the ARJ 21 lost an order which amounted to 40 planes fromMerpati Nusantara Airlines (MZ) two years ago. According to the company's current plan, the task for 2014 is mainly to obtain airworthiness certificate for the ARJ 21. There is still a long way to go before it is put into production and finally delivered to its customers. Under the current situation where new orders are hard to secure and existing ones face withdrawal, the commercial value of the aircraft is expected to be severely compromised. Meanwhile, the extra weight added to the C919 plane by the replacement of composite material with aluminumfor fuselage has offset part of its cost efficiency advantages. What's more, compared with Boeing's brand new single-aisle plane 737MAX and Airbus' A320NEO, C919 is outpaced in terms of both market basis and the aircraft design. Although C919 has acquired altogether 380 orders so far, mostly fromdomestic airlines and aircraft leasing companies, COMAC still has a long way to go to challenge the industry giants. Tweet 1 2