Boeing’s 737 Max crisis may turn out to be the long-awaited break for China’s first homegrown jet maker.The unravelling of Boeing’s reputation, following the mid-air blowout of a Max 9 door plug on an Alaska Airlines flight last month, comes just as Comac, also known as Commercial Aircraft Corp of China, prepares to push its business overseas.
This week will be big for the company, whose aircraft include the C919 single-aisle jet. Comac on Tuesday made its international air show debut in Singapore and also signed a significant order from Tibet Airlines for 40 C919 jets and 10 of its smaller ARJ21 aircraft.
Beijing has long wanted self-sufficiency in key industries, including chipmaking and aircraft manufacturing. It has made significant progress on the latter. After well over a decade of investment and development in the sector, Comac brought the 164-seater C919 jet into service last year. Two models of its jets, the C919 and ARJ21 made flights outside of mainland China to Hong Kong in December.