'Plateau Eagle' Builds Southwest Air Express Lines

A Chinese-made ARJ21 aircraft successfully completed a flight in the route of Kunming-Lijing-Xishuangbanna-Kunming on August 19th, 2019, which indicates that the route demonstration flight of ARJ21 aircraft in southwestern region of China has officially kicked off. The demonstration flight would lasted for three days and would be carried out in two cross routes and three counter routes among eight airports in Kunming, Lijing, Xishuangbanna, Tengchong, Lincang and Dali, mainly to display the performance of ARJ21 aircraft in plateau conditions and its compatibility with high-altitude airports and explore the regional aviation express lines in southwestern region of China. During the demonstration flight, Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, Ltd. (COMAC) would organize a seminar on ARJ21 aircraft plateau operation to discuss the aviation market and route operation in plateau region of China and communicate with customers about the demonstration flight.

As southwestern region of China is rich in tourism resources, building a route network for air transportation can improve the accessibility of this region and greatly reduce the time cost of tourism in southwestern region of China. According to relevant statistics, the airports in Yunnan have accommodated 532,900 take-offs and landings for transportation in 2018, with a passenger throughput of 67.5856 million person-times, and especially, Kunming airport has ranked 35th in the world in passenger throughput, therefore this region enjoys unique advantages in developing regional aviation. ARJ21 aircraft is the first type of regional jet designed in accordance with the operating conditions in mid-western & northern regions of China, which has excellent performance in plateau and high temperature conditions and crosswind performance, and especially could meet the requirements of take-off and landing at the airports in southwestern region of China and obstacle clearance along complex routes.

By the end of 2018, there are a total of 36 high-altitude civil aviation airports in China, most of which are in western region of China. According to relevant statistics, the four airports of Kunming, Lanzhou, Lijiang and Xining account for more than 95% of the transport volume of general high-altitude airports in China. As the development of regional aviation in China and the social and economic development in mid-western region of China can promote each other, the increase of air transportation service coverage and the improvement of aviation operating environment can not only facilitate local people's travel, but also promote the high-quality development of regional economy. With the improvement of COMAC's production capacity and the expansion of ARJ21 fleet size, the China-made regional jet will play an important role in the balanced and coordinated development of various regions in China.

At present, Chengdu Airlines, as the first operator of ARJ21 fleet, has successively opened more than 20 routes in more than 20 cities, and carried more than 450,000 passengers. Genghis Khan Airlines, as the second operator of ARJ21 fleet, has launch the maiden flight on July 26th, 2019 and officially started the commercial operation. To create conditions for accelerating the market-oriented development of ARJ21 aircraft in mid-western & northern regions of China, COMAC has always adhered to the principles of customer centered and market oriented, carried out the tasks such as design optimization, batch production and delivery, and operation support in a down-to-earth manner, set up a 24/7 rapid response service mechanism to ensure the safe and smooth operation of the aircraft, striven to provide markets and customers with aircraft which are safer, more economic, more comfortable, more environmental-friendly and more adaptable to special environments such as plateau and high temperature, vigorously promoted the high-quality development of regional aviation in China, and made efforts to build China into a civil aviation giant in the new era.

(Image provided with Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) news release)

FMI: english.comac.cc