Recently, the world's well-known aviation professional media, the United States "Aviation Week", reported the latest situation of the domestic jet trunk aircraft C919 on the order. Aviation Week, through Fleet Discovery Civil, the world's largest civil aircraft and aero engine data platform, confirmed that COMAC has received orders for more than 1,250 C919s since its launch.
Another well-known commercial aviation media, Simple Flight, recently published an in-depth article detailing China Eastern Airlines' C919 fleet and the operation of three domestic routes, including the registration number, delivery date, first commercial operation date, and detailed flight operation data of each C919.
Including the delivery plan and delivery quantity of the new C919 contract of China Eastern Airlines, and the size of the C919 fleet by year, etc., all of which are reported in the form of a table. Even the new international routes, domestic regional routes, and the second C919 base planned by C919 in the future, "Simple Flight" shows the dynamics of C919 with detailed reports.
Regarding the commercial operation of China Eastern Airlines' domestic trunk line with C919, "Simple Flight" introduces it in great detail. For example, the first commercial flight of C919 is a round-trip flight from Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport to Beijing Capital International Airport on May 28, 2023. The first regular commercial route of C919 will be a round-trip route from Shanghai Hongqiao Airport to Chengdu Tianfu Airport from May 29 the next day.
When the second C919 was added to China Eastern Airlines, it will start dual-aircraft operation on the Shanghai Hongqiao-Chengdu Tianfu route from August 4, 2023, increasing the number of flights and seats on this route by 57%. After the fourth C919 entered service, China Eastern launched its second scheduled commercial route on January 9, 2024, a round-trip route between Shanghai Hongqiao and Beijing Daxing. The third scheduled commercial route of the C919 is a round-trip route from Shanghai Hongqiao to Xi'an Xianyang, which will be launched on March 8, 2024 after China Eastern Airlines received the fifth aircraft.
For example, in January 2024, there were four C919 aircraft operating at the same time, and China Eastern Airlines operated a total of 268 C919-operated flights that month, providing 43,416 seats and 41664044 kilometers of seat mileage.
In February, there were 230 flights, 37,260 seats and 34016436 kilometres of seat mileage. In March, the number of C919 flights increased to 366.
For China Eastern's sixth C919, Simple Flight said that it will be the first aircraft in the new batch under the new contract between China Eastern Airlines and COMAC, and will receive five more C919s at a rate of one every one to two months in the remaining nine months of 2024, expanding the size of China Eastern's C919 fleet to 10 aircraft.
In addition, "Simple Flight" also predicts that China Eastern Airlines will soon launch the first international route operated by China's domestic C919 passenger aircraft.
Coincidentally, China Southern Airlines' 14,147-kilometer round-trip route from Shenzhen to Mexico City, China's second-longest international route, which will open on April 6, and Air China's 17,584-kilometer round-trip route from Beijing to Sao Paulo, which will resume on April 28, were all reported by Western media for the first time, even though it was Chinese airlines that opened the route.
This is a bit strange, why is the Western media so clear about the domestic airlines' routes, and even the situation of each aircraft? Why is it always the Western media that reports this aviation information first?