Mr. Li Qiang visits COMAC and witnesses deliver of three ARJ21 aircraft

To accelerate research and manufacturing of "highly competitive products"

Mr. Li Qiang, Committee Member of Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, and Secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee came to the aircraft industrial park in Lin-gang Special Area of China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone on June 10th, 2020, visited Pudong base of the Assembly Manufacturing Center of Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, Ltd. (COMAC) in the company of Mr. He Dongfeng, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of COMAC, and Mr. Zhao Yuerang, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and President of COMAC, learned about the planning and construction of the industrial park as well as the development and production progress of aircraft, and witnessed the simultaneous deliver of three ARJ21 aircraft to Chengdu Airlines, Genghis Khan Airlines and Jiangxi Air. Mr. Li Qiang said that trunk liner embodied the energy level of high-end manufacturing, and represented the core competitiveness of the aviation industry. We should thoroughly implement the spirits of the major instructions made by General Secretary Xi Jinping; accelerate the creation of an independent, controllable, safe and reliable aviation industry cluster; make every effort to create an industrial ecosystem with complete elements, vitality and innovation ability; and make greater contributions to fulfilling the national missions and serving the national strategies.

Mr. Wu Qing, Member of the Standing Committee of CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee and Vice Mayor of Shanghai, and Mr. Zhuge Yujie, Member of the Standing Committee and Secretary General of CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee, attended the visit. Mr. Tan Wangeng, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and Director of COMAC, Mr. Zhao Jiufang, Mr. Guo Bozhi, Mr. Cheng Fubo, Mr. Zhou Xinmin, Mr. Zhou Qimin and Mr. Wei Yingbiao, Members of Standing Committee of the Party Committee of COMAC, Mr. Wu Guanghui, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Mr. Tang Jin, Chairman of Chengdu Airlines, Mr. Hao Yutao, Chairman of Genghis Khan Airlines, Mr. Zhang Zhizhong, President of Jiangxi Air, Mdm Chen Xiang, Vice President of SPDBank Financial Leasing Co., Ltd., and Mr. Zeng Yiwei, CFO of Xiamen Air and Chairman of Xiamen Air Financial Leasing Co., Ltd., attended the delivery ceremony.




The aircraft industrial park located on the south of Pudong International Airport, which relies on the national trunk liner strategy, the foundation of aviation industry in Shanghai, and the special policies of Lin-gang Special Area and the Integrated Free Trade Zone, is taking aircraft assembly manufacturing as traction, gathering high-quality domestic and foreign aviation resources, and striving to build itself into a world-class aviation industrial park. Mr. Li Qiang listened to the introduction of the overall planning and construction progress of the park, and had an in-depth understanding of the industrial positioning, enterprise introduction, and establishment of upstream and downstream industrial chains. Mr. Li Qiang said that we should combine with the construction of Shanghai International Shipping Center and Shanghai Technology Innovation Center, give full play to the advantages of industrial technology and element resources, and strive to build an aviation industry cluster with core competitiveness; we should also fully rely on COMAC and other leading enterprises in the aviation field, accelerate the aggregation of upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain and supply chain, and establish and improve a modern aviation industry system with distinctive characteristics.




At Pudong base of the Assembly Manufacturing Center of COMAC, leaders of Shanghai listened to the introduction of Mr. He Dongfeng and Mr. Zhao Yuerang, asked about the development and construction of COMAC as well as the research and development progress of aircraft programs, visited the Aeronautical Manufacturing Technology Research Institute, numerical control workshop, and ARJ21 aircraft assembly shop and final assembly shop, and learned about the intelligent manufacturing and flexible production of the production line on site. Mr. Li Qiang was very concerned about the batch production of ARJ21 aircraft and the progress of flight test of C919 aircraft, and had in-depth exchanges with relevant leaders of COMAC. At present, the flight test and certification of C919 aircraft is advancing steadily, and the batch production of ARJ21 aircraft is being improved in quality and speed. Although the development and production of the enterprise has been affected to some extent by the epidemic, with the joint efforts of all the staff, the lost time has been recovered, and the production and delivery of relevant aircraft are advancing according to the original schedule. Mr. Li Qiang said that COMAC had undertaken an important mission, and hoped that COMAC could always revolve around national needs, strengthen responsibility and actions, speed up technical research, accelerate the layout of the trunk liner industry, accelerate the research and manufacturing of "highly competitive products" that represent the future competitiveness of the country, make full use of the new generation of information technology to improve manufacturing capacity and level, and make new contributions to the development of the trunk liner career unceasingly. Shanghai would create a better environment and provide better services to help COMAC make greater breakthroughs and achieve better development in Shanghai.




Subsequently, relevant leaders attended the delivery ceremony of ARJ21 aircraft. ARJ21 aircraft is a new turbofan regional jet independently developed by China and having independent intellectual property rights. A total of 28 ARJ21 aircraft have been delivered to and operated by three commercial customers including Chengdu Airlines, Genghis Khan Airlines and Jiangxi Air. Up to now, ARJ21 aircraft have successively operated in more than 55 routes in more than 55 cities in the regions such as North China, Northeast China and Southwest China, and carried more than 860,000 passengers.




Chengdu Airlines is the first customer of ARJ21 aircraft. The first ARJ21 aircraft entered into route operation on June 28th, 2016. Up to now, Chengdu Airlines has received 20 ARJ21 aircraft, with the routes covering the regions such as East China, Central-South China, Southwest China, Northwest China, Northeast China and Russian Far East, basically forming a trunk and regional airline network across regions.




Genghis Khan Airlines is the first operator of a fleet purely composed of China-made jets in China. Genghis Khan Airlines received the first ARJ21 aircraft on February 22nd, 2019. Up to now, Genghis Khan Airlines has a fleet of 5 ARJ21 aircraft, serving the cities such as Hohhot, Ulanhot and Xilinhaote.




Jiangxi Air is the first operator of ARJ21 aircraft in East China. ARJ21 Jinggangshan, the first ARJ21 aircraft of Jiangxi Air, officially completed its maiden flight on May 15th, 2020. This time, COMAC delivered the second ARJ21 aircraft to Jiangxi Air.