COMAC

As of October 2026 – A slim regional jet with a T-tail and two engines at the rear taxis to the runway in Chengdu; a few hours later, a narrowbody jet the size of an A320 in China Eastern colors lands in Shanghai. Both carry a registration starting with B- and come from the same manufacturer: COMAC. The state-owned group from Shanghai is the most ambitious newcomer in airliner manufacturing in decades – and for spotters from Germany, Austria and Switzerland one of the most exciting, because its jets simply don’t show up here in everyday operations.

A state-owned group with a big mission

China has been building aircraft for decades, but for a long time mostly military aircraft and licensed builds. There were first attempts at a jet airliner of its own around 1980 with the Y-10, which never got beyond prototypes. More important for later know-how was the licensed production of Western jets: in Shanghai, aircraft of the MD-80 family from McDonnell Douglas were assembled in the 1980s and 1990s, later including two MD-90s. This experience shaped the first series project of its own.

That project was the ARJ21 regional jet, started in 2002 under a consortium of the state aviation industry. To bundle the civil programs, the government founded the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China – COMAC for short – in Shanghai on May 11, 2008. The shareholders included the state asset manager SASAC, the aerospace group AVIC, Shanghai investors and large industrial groups such as Baosteel and the aluminum producer Chalco. COMAC took over the ARJ21 and in the same year launched the program for a large narrowbody jet, the later C919.

The goal was clear from the start: China should not remain permanently dependent on Airbus and Boeing for airliners. The road there took considerably longer than planned. More than seven and a half years lay between the ARJ21’s first flight in November 2008 and its first scheduled flight, and for the C919 a good fifteen years passed from program launch to scheduled service.

COMAC is not a classic commercial enterprise but an industrial policy project. That shows abroad, too: since 2021, the US has listed the company among firms with ties to the Chinese military. At the same time, COMAC is closely intertwined with Western suppliers – without engines, avionics and systems from Europe and the US, neither of the two jets would fly today.

The types at a glance

For you at the fence, the program is manageable: two types in scheduled service, one widebody jet on the drawing board. Telling them apart is easy once you know the basic layouts.

There are also derivatives. Among others, the C909 exists in a longer-range version, a converted freighter, a business jet and versions for disaster relief and patient transport. The C919 flies in a standard and an ER version that look the same from the outside. In the works are a shortened variant for high-altitude airports, which COMAC is developing together with Tibet Airlines, and a stretched version with China Eastern.

ARJ21 / C909: China’s regional jet

The ARJ21 is China’s first jet airliner of its own to enter series production. The prototype rolled out on December 21, 2007, and made its first flight in Shanghai on November 28, 2008. Certification by the Chinese aviation authority CAAC followed only on December 30, 2014. Chengdu Airlines took delivery of the first aircraft on November 29, 2015, and the first scheduled flight went from Chengdu to Shanghai Hongqiao on June 28, 2016.

Technically, the jet is a classic regional jet with two CF34-10A engines from GE Aerospace at the rear and a T-tail. Western analysts see the genes of the MD-80, which was built under license in Shanghai, in the fuselage cross-section; COMAC itself speaks of an independent design. According to widely cited reports, the wing was designed by the Ukrainian design bureau Antonov. The cockpit uses avionics from Collins Aerospace.

For a long time, the ARJ21 was a purely domestic aircraft. From 2020, the three big state airlines Air China, China Eastern and China Southern also added the type to their fleets. In the same year, a second production line went into operation in Pudong. According to available data, a good 200 aircraft had been delivered by early 2026 – in China the jet is long since no exotic.

In autumn 2024, the regional jet got its new name. At the Zhuhai Airshow in November 2024, COMAC presented the designation C909, matching the C919 and C929. Newly painted aircraft carry the titles on the fuselage; many older ones still show “ARJ21”.

The first exports

The step abroad was made with the regional jet. The first foreign operator was TransNusa from Indonesia, which took delivery of its first aircraft in 2022 and from July 2023 also used the type between Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur. In 2025 came Lao Airlines with its first own C909 and VietJet, which flies aircraft wet-leased from Chengdu Airlines on domestic routes in Vietnam. This means you can now also see the C909 at airports you know as vacation destinations.

C919: the assault on the A320 and 737

The C919 is COMAC’s prestige project. It targets exactly the segment that the A320neo family and the Boeing 737 MAX have shared between themselves for decades. Depending on the cabin, it offers 158 to 192 seats according to the manufacturer, and its range suffices for domestic routes and connections to neighboring countries.

The milestones:

• November 2, 2015: roll-out of the first prototype in Shanghai
• May 5, 2017: first flight
• September 29, 2022: type certification by the CAAC
• December 9, 2022: first delivery to China Eastern Airlines
• May 28, 2023: first scheduled flight as MU9191 from Shanghai Hongqiao to Beijing
• August 2024: Air China and China Southern take delivery of their first aircraft

As with the regional jet, a lot of Western technology is inside the aircraft. The LEAP-1C engines are supplied by CFM International, the joint venture of GE and Safran. The air conditioning comes from Liebherr Aerospace, and other systems come from Honeywell, Collins Aerospace and Thales, among others, often through joint ventures with Chinese partners. A Chinese engine of its own, the CJ-1000A, is in testing but not yet in scheduled service.

This very dependence became visible in 2025: in May, the US suspended delivery of the LEAP-1C engines to China, and in July it lifted the halt again. Deliveries stayed well behind targets. According to available data, around 40 C919s had been handed over by mid-2026. Against this stands an order book that COMAC puts at well over a thousand orders – a large share of them from Chinese airlines and leasing companies, many as letters of intent.

C929: the widebody jet

With its third program, COMAC wants to enter the league of long-haul jets. It began in 2017 as the CR929, together with the Russian United Aircraft Corporation and a joint venture of its own in Shanghai. After the Russian attack on Ukraine and the sanctions that followed, Russia withdrew in 2023; since then COMAC has been developing the aircraft alone as the C929.

The plan is a twin-engine widebody jet with around 250 to 320 seats in several lengths. In November 2024, Air China was named as launch customer. The original schedules are long since obsolete; industry observers don’t expect a prototype before the end of the decade. As a spotter, for now you can only see the C929 as a model at aviation trade shows. COMAC has also shown further widebody and concept studies, but they are far from a series program.

How to recognize COMAC jets

Identification is easier than with many Western manufacturers because there are only two series types. The harder part is telling them apart from the competition.

How the C909 differs from the CRJ, E-Jets and Superjet 100 is shown in the article Telling regional jets apart. For the C919, it helps to have the features of the A320neo in mind – they are covered in A320neo or ceo?.

Where you can see COMAC jets

Honestly: not in Europe. Neither the C909 nor the C919 has EASA certification (as of October 2026). Talks are under way for the C919; an EASA representative named a possible timeframe between 2028 and 2031 in 2025. Until then, no airline flies the types to Europe on a regular schedule. If you want a COMAC sighting, you have to travel – or get lucky with a special flight.

For most spotters, Hong Kong is the easiest entry point: the airport is easy to reach, and the city offers well-known spots, which the article Plane spotting in Hong Kong presents. You’ll find the most traffic on the Chinese mainland, though. There, the three big airlines fly their C919s mainly on domestic routes out of Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou. If you prefer it comfortable, plan a visit to the Singapore Airshow, for which the article Plane spotting in Singapore gives an overview.

An alternative is simply to fly along. A domestic flight on the C909 or the C919 is a real highlight for type collectors – tips are in the article Flying rare aircraft types as a passenger.

COMAC compared with Airbus, Boeing and others

On the world market, COMAC is still a small player. While Airbus and Boeing deliver hundreds of narrowbody jets every year, the C919 is in the double digits. The real competitive advantage lies in the home market: China’s airlines are mostly state-owned, and the demand for new aircraft is huge.

In the regional jet segment, the C909 meets Embraer with its E-Jets, the no longer built CRJ family from Bombardier such as the CRJ900, and the Superjet 100 from Russia. The C919 competes with the A320neo family and the 737 MAX, but also with the Russian MC-21, which likewise wants to challenge the established Western players. Japan shows how hard market entry is: the Mitsubishi SpaceJet was canceled after years of development without ever entering scheduled service.

The relationship with the established players is interesting: COMAC cooperated early with Bombardier, Ryanair showed interest in the C919 in 2011, and in 2015 Boeing announced a joint completion center for 737s with COMAC in Zhoushan. Competition and cooperation lie close together here.

Photo tips for COMAC jets

How to classify such finds and why they count especially in your collection is explained in the article Spotting rare aircraft.

Conclusion

In less than two decades, COMAC has gone from a political founding act to a manufacturer with two series types. The ARJ21, today the C909, is an everyday regional jet in China and by now also flies in Southeast Asia. The C919 has arrived in scheduled service but is growing more slowly than planned and remains dependent on Western suppliers. With the C929, the next big project is on the horizon, though its schedule is still open.

For spotters from the DACH region, COMAC jets are therefore true rarities. If you want to see them, you travel to China, Hong Kong or Southeast Asia – and recognize them there by a few features: rear-mounted engines and a T-tail on the C909, A320 size on the C919, plus B- registration and type designator.