COMAC C919 Receives Order from Urumqi Air

DALLAS - The Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) has received an order from Hainan Airlines (HU) subsidiary Urumqi Air (UQ) for 30 of its C919 jets. If confirmed, the total cost of the order would be around US$2.97bn at list prices.

The deal comes just after fellow Hainan subsidiary Suparna Airlines (Y8) inked an agreement with COMAC for the C919 and ARJ21 aircraft.
In a filing to the stock exchange, Hainan Airlines said that it would negotiate the deals separately and firm up the orders once details of the agreement have been finalized with COMAC.

The C919s launch customer China Eastern Airlines (MU) welcomed its first example of the type into the fleet in December 2022. However, the jet has yet to enter service with the airline due to test flight issues.

Urumqi Air (UQ) has a fleet of 16 Boeing 737-800s. Photo: Urumqi Air.

Orders

During the Zhuhai Airshow in November 2022, seven leasing companies placed confirmed orders for a total of 300 C919s. In January 2023, COMAC reported that it had received orders for over 1,200 C919s. It also revealed that it plans to increase production to 150 airframes within five years.

The C919s customer list currently includes MU, Air China (CA), China Southern Airlines (CZ) and Sichuan Airlines (3U). However, several of these airlines are yet to finalize the purchase agreement for the type.

Urumqi Air was established in 2014 as a low-cost carrier. It operates scheduled services from its Ürümqi Diwopu International Airport (URC) hub with a fleet of 16 Boeing 737-800s.

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Featured Image: COMAC C919. Photo: COMAC.