🇨🇳 It's All Chinese To Me

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What a week we had, two major events took place, the Routes Europe and the Passenger Terminal Expo. At the latter, Skytrax announced this year’s airport award winners.

Doha’s Hamad Airport won the World’s Best Airport award, while Singapore’s Changi came second. While you can review the whole list of all airport winners, I want to mention one more winner: my hometown’s Budapest Airport, taking the award of Best Airport in Eastern Europe for the eleventh time. Congrats!

Now let’s go to this week’s briefing.

This week, you can read about:
🇨🇳 Whether China can leverage Boeing’s struggles
🇬🇷 Greece’s national airline goes for something long and premium
🫠 Thai Airways had a farewell party a bit too late

This briefing is a 13-min read. Yepp, it’s a bit longer than usual but I promise it’s worth it!

Before we dive in, subscribe to get a piece of The Departure Times in your inbox every week.

THIS WEEK’S TOP STORY
Can China benefit from Boeing’s struggles?

The answer is yes and no.

China’s flagship aircraft manufacturer is Comac which was established in 2008. It has the super ambitious goal of breaking the Airbus-Boeing duopoly and putting China on the map of aircraft manufacturers serving the global market.

This isn’t an easy job to do.

Boeing has been ruling the world airliner market for 70 years, while Airbus has been out there for 50 years. While there are some other significant players like Embraer, they cannot serve the global market in the same magnitude, as the Airbus-Boeing duo, due to its limited aircraft type offerings.

What does Comac offer to the market?

Comac, as a brand-new player in the market, is now offering two aircraft types:

• The 70-95-seater ARJ21 regional jet

• The 150-190-seater C919 narrow-body jet

The ARJ21, which we may consider an Embraer E175-E2 competitor, has been in service since 2016 and Comac delivered over 120 aircraft to mainly Chinese airlines and the Indonesian TransNusa. The manufacturer has 250+ orders, surprisingly from China, and that one exception of TransNusa.

Regarding the orders, Comac C919 has a much better performance, as it accounts for more than 700 orders and 120 options. China Eastern Airlines is the first (and so far only) operator of the narrow-body jet since May 2023.

The Chinese manufacturer also wants to enter the wide-body aircraft market with its planned C929. In 2017, a Chinese-Russian joint venture was launched to develop the 250-320-seater C929 aircraft together, aimed for a maiden flight between 2025 and 2028. In the following years, tensions between the two parties grew, citing difficulties in working together.

The timeline was delayed several times due to both internal and external factors, including the pandemic and then Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the sanctions that followed their military actions.

In 2023, Russia announced its withdrawal from the program and since then, Comac has continued the development on its own.

As of today, the wide-body aircraft’s first flight is expected in the early 2030s. So until then, Comac has to pursue its global aims mainly with the C919. But as a rookie aircraft manufacturer, it faces various challenges with the narrow-body jet.

What are the issues, challenges & disadvantages of the Comac C919?

There are several reasons for that.

⚡️ Performance: While the C919 uses the same CFM LEAP engines as the Boeing 737 Max or the Airbus A320neo, even with similar thrust ranges, the Chinese jet performs much worse than its competitors. The C919 has a higher operational empty weight than the A320neo or the 737 Max 8. Therefore, it has a lower max range than its competitors.

🛠️ Supplier & maintenance network: Comac doesn’t have a network for maintenance, repairs, and operations (MRO) services outside of China. All MRO works are currently done by either Comac or China Eastern, according to aviation expert Li Hanming. Building an extensive network of MRO providers outside of China would take significant time.

📑 Certification and regulatory approvals: The Comac C919 does not have American (FAA) or European (EASA) certification yet. According to the latest reports, while Comac seeks European certification as soon as possible, the European regulator said that the aircraft is too new and therefore, a certification will take years.

Also, since the Boeing 737 Max troubles, Western regulators toughened the certification process of new aircraft. Therefore, until Comac has no FAA and/or EASA certification, delivering its aircraft to foreign carriers will have a major barrier of having to go through a long certification process by particular countries’ civil aviation authorities. A good example is GallopAir, a startup airline in Brunei, that eyes a year-end launch with the C919 if Brunei’s aviation regulator approves the aircraft.

🌐 Geopolitical tensions & dependencies: It’s no surprise that those Western certifications may also face political tensions and blockers. While we are in the middle of a “tech cold war” between the West and China, opening up the Western markets for Chinese aircraft would mean that they “allow the wolf to get closer to the prey” in their own territory. But in the end, even Chinese electric cars are appearing in Europe, so anything can happen. Although, the US may be a different story.

Speaking of geopolitical tensions and dependencies, there’s another question we need to answer: how Chinese is the C919? Well, not as much as we think. A research by the Centre For Strategic & International Studies shows that 90% of the aircraft’s components are sourced from North American and European suppliers. Some of these suppliers are Honeywell (for the electrical system and landing gear), GE (for the flight recorder), and CFM (for its engines), among many others.

So if Comac could pose any real threat to the Airbus-Boeing duopoly, the US or European governments could easily block those companies from supplying the Chinese jet any further.

So the Comac C919 is not a duopoly killer, right?

No, it may not be but it could still cause some headaches to those Westerner big guys. Since the Comac C919 appeared at the Singapore Air Show in February, the industry has been talking about Comac’s objectives in the Asia-Pacific region.

While the Chinese jet may lack Western certification, China’s influence in certain Asian countries may work out well for their benefit. Asia has one of the fastest-growing air travel markets that have great potential for Comac.

Also, as Boeing is suffering from all the troubles around the Boeing 737 Max family, the production rate is slowed and deliveries are being delayed. As an example, airlines like Malaysia Airlines become victims of those delays.

So if those fast-growing markets in Southeast Asia want to keep up with the pace, they might be looking at other viable options like the C919. Comac sensed it well and thus they sent their aircraft on a tour to Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam.

While the next likely customer could come from Indonesia in the name of TransNusa (that already operates the Comac ARJ21 aircraft), another delicious customer could end up in the arms of the Chinese manufacturer: the Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific.

As Chinese influence in Hong Kong is getting stronger and its flag carrier, Air China, mulls increasing its current 29.99% ownership in Cathay Pacific, it may not be a surprise that Chinese aircraft could soon enter service in Cathay’s fleet. Even the airline’s CEO talked about becoming an ABC operator. ABC = Airbus, Boeing, Comac.

My “two cents” on this: the duopoly will stay alive in the short term. But in the next two decades, China may break that. Yes, the Comac C919 might depend on Western suppliers but as we see how China’s automotive industry developed from “copycats” to serious players, we might see a similar trajectory with its aircraft manufacturing industry.

Comac is now testing the water with the C919, just as Airbus did it with the A300 back in the 1970s. But Comac won’t stop here. Eventually, they will bring their wide-body. And once they will prove their aircraft's “worthiness”, they could become serious alternatives for the Airbus-Boeing duopoly in their sphere of influence, such as Asia and Africa.

NEWS BRIEFS
Delta Finally Creates Its NDC Solution With Four Partners, Including Accelya

Delta finally hops on the NDC train, as the last US-based network carrier, as the airline announced its plans to create a New Distribution Capability (NDC) platform.

The airline will work together with Accelya, Google, ARC, and IATA on the project to build its NDC solution. It was not specified how these “solution design partners” would contribute to the initiative, except for Accelya. The Miami-based technology company’s FLX platform will empower Delta’s NDC solution.

Accelya’s FLX is already used by 19 airlines, including American and United and, according to the company’s statement, half of all global NDC transactions were enabled by them in 2022.

Delta also stated that it has no intentions to impose GDS surcharges or other drastic measures to steer traffic toward its NDC channels. The airline claims that “customers will want to use our NDC solution because it's going to create value for them.”

Source: Phocuswire

Aegean Will Introduce New A321neos With Extended Range And Premium Class To Serve Non-EU Markets

The Greek national carrier announced that it will invest in four A321neo aircraft that will serve longer routes with a less dense cabin configuration.

This means that their newest A321neos will come with additional fuel tanks that will enable routes up to 7.5 hours. Also, their cabin will feature 180 seats instead of the regular 220-seat configuration and as a brand new service, Aegean will introduce premium lie-flat seats to their Business Class.

But that’s not all. Passengers will also have internet access through satellite connectivity as well as in-flight entertainment at every seat.

So what routes would these extended-range A321neos serve?

According to Aegean’s statement, some potentially new destinations may include Oman, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya, or even India. When these aircraft are delivered in 2026-27, Aegean will be able to pursue a massive market expansion that has not occurred ever before for the Greek flag carrier.

While Greece is one of the most popular tourist destinations worldwide, the country’s national airline cannot serve overseas flights, besides some Gulf cities, like Riyadh or Dubai.

Source: Aegean

AirAsia Is Among The Bidders For SriLankan Airlines

AirAsia is among the six bidders in a Request for Qualification (RFQ) process for the purchase of SriLankan Airlines, the flag carrier of the struggling country of Sri Lanka.

According to reports by Reuters, the island nation needs to reduce losses by state-owned companies under a $2.9 billion IMF program that comes as a bailout. Sri Lanka has been in a chaotic economic crisis that this bailout seeks to resolve.

The bid was submitted by the low-cost airline’s AirAsia Consulting company which serves as an aviation consulting firm. Should it win the bid to take over SriLankan Airlines, no further plans are known for how it would operate and develop the Sri Lankan flag carrier further.

Source: MarketSceener

SOME MORE NEWS FROM THE GLOBE

🌎 Americas

Airbus announced the hiring of ex-JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes as CEO of Airbus Americas. It’s exciting news that Airbus hired an industry veteran but there’s something odd about it.

In his retirement announcement back in January, Hayes said that his CEO role had “extraordinary challenges and pressure” and he stepped down on the advice of his doctor to put more focus on his health and well-being.

Fair enough, being an airline CEO must take a lot from a person. Especially as their JetBlue-Spirit merger failed big time.

The question is whether his new role as the head of Airbus Americas will enable him to keep a healthy work-health harmony. I just hope it will.

Source: Airbus

🌏 Asia-Pacific

Air China resumes its service to Cuba after a 4-year hiatus. Previously, their Havana flight was operated through Montreal with a fifth freedom flight between Montreal and Havana. This time, they take a different route through Madrid.

The Chinese flag carrier already operates the Beijing-Madrid route so it will just adjust the schedule with the newly added Madrid-Havana 2x weekly service from mid-May.

Why is that interesting?

As an aviation geek, the Beijing-Madrid-Havana route’s total distance of 10,378 miles is fascinating. But from a commercial perspective, while the Madrid-Havana service may be well-performing, Air China’s yields might not be the best.

The route’s political aspect is way more interesting. China is knowingly expanding its political influence globally and the Asian superpower already has good relations with the Caribbean island nation.

While this resuming service won’t have a significant political impact, it may also be a symbolic act. As said, neither the Beijing-Madrid nor the Madrid-Havana routes are the worst ones an airline can operate.

Source: AeroRoutes

🌍 EMEA

Allow me to be biased but as an aviation geek, I’m so psyched that the Airbus A380 is not completely dead yet. While Etihad planned to fully retire the type during the pandemic, fortunately, the Superjumbo is not going anywhere for a while.

The Abu Dhabi-based carrier already announced that it would reinstate the A380 on its New York service and on April 22, this finally took place. While Etihad still keeps flying the A380 to London but with a smaller frequency.

As we know, Etihad’s Superjumbos are well-known for their luxurious private apartments, The Residence. As One Mile At A Time reports, since Etihad re-deployed the A380s, first-class passengers can upgrade to The Residence for:

• $2,500 one-way between Abu Dhabi-London

• $4,500 one-way between Abu Dhabi-New York

This is much more reasonable than before COVID when tickets could even cost $20,000 one-way to London, for instance.

Source: One Mile At A Time

FAVORITE PIECES THIS WEEK
My weekly “Inflight Food for Thought”

🚨 One Article: A German reporter shadowed Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr for a day. One Mile At A Time covered this story and its interesting & shocking details, like how Spohr flies with bodyguards on Lufthansa flights. Read it here, it’s worth it. 

💺 One Video: This 4-min video showcases the future interiors of American Airlines aircraft. Seeing those fresh new interiors, especially in the premium classes, looks so satisfying.

🛰️ One Podcast: You may have already heard about GPS spoofing, especially in regions like the Baltics (close to the Russo-Ukrainian war) and the Middle East (with the recent Israel-Hamas war). Flightradar24’s AvTalk podcast covered the topic of how the aviation industry reacts to these GPS spoofing. It’s worth listening to this episode.

SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT OF THE WEEK
Is There A Thing Like Having A Farewell Party Too Late?

Thai Airways has organized an event to bid farewell to its last Boeing 747-400.

The only tiny hiccup is that they retired the aircraft type years ago and the engines of their last Boeing 747 were already sold.

It feels like an open-casket funeral for someone deceased for years….

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