China’s first domestically manufactured regional passenger jetliner ARJ 21 under Chengdu Airlines made its maiden overseas flight on Saturday, embarking from Harbin, Northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province, to Vladivostok in Russia.
Beginning Sunday it will be on a regular operation, flying on Mondays and Fridays.
At present, most of the flights from Harbin to Vladivostok need to transit, primarily through Beijing, Shanghai, and Seoul. With the opening of this route, there will be more choices for the passengers.
As the first domestically-built jet, with independent intellectual property rights owned by China, it is particularly suitable for airport take-off and landing conditions including complex route obstacles of the western and northern regions of China, said Zhang Fang, captain of this ARJ21 flying to Vladivostok.
Chengdu Airlines is the first buyer of ARJ21. Since the beginning of this aircraft’s commercial operations in June of 2016, Chengdu Airlines has transported more than 540,000 passengers, covering 28 cities.
At present, the total fleet size of the Chengdu Airlines is 47, including 15 ARJ21 aircraft.
In August this year, three Chinese carriers, Air China, Chinese Eastern Airlines, and China Southern Airlines, said they will buy 35 ARJ21, with a total sum of nearly 28.3 billion yuan ($4 billion).
So far, Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) has received 596 orders for ARJ21 from 22 customers. COMAC has delivered 19 ARJ21 aircraft to its customers.
Chengdu Airlines celebrated its first international route with the ARJ21 flying from Harbin, Northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province to Vladivostok on Saturday. [Cover Image: Tu Lei/ GT]
