Vietnam could be preparing to welcome aircraft produced by the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC), after Hanoi announced last Wednesday that it was considering removing regulatory barriers in order to allow such planes to operate in the country.
Currently, COMAC’s jetliners, the C909 and C919, operate almost exclusively within mainland China. The state-owned company, however, has ambitions to broaden its reach to other parts of Asia and further afield, competing with the world’s two leading aircraft manufacturers – the US’s Boeing and Europe’s Airbus.
Entering the Vietnamese market would mark a step towards this goal, although multiple media reports note that the country’s aviation regulator will need to first give COMAC the greenlight.
Deputy prime minister Tran Hong Ha has reportedly instructed Vietnam’s transport ministry to review the removal of regulations that presently prevent COMAC aircraft from flying in the Southeast Asian country. The directive comes in the wake of a meeting with COMAC’s board director, Tan Wangeng.
Reuters notes that COMAC has been keen to make inroads into the Vietnamese market. Last February, the plane manufacturer conducted two flight demonstrations in the country, as part of its tour around the region.
[See more: China’s homegrown C919 jet now flies between Hong Kong and Shanghai]
Aside from Vietnam, COMAC is also eyeing potential markets in other countries such as Brazil, where it is in talks with Total Linhas Aereas about a potential order of C919 planes.
Although COMAC lacks presence internationally, it is already well-established within China, with domestic airlines such as China Eastern Airlines and Air China making use of its jetliners on domestic flights. Earlier this month, the C919 made its first round-trip flight between Hong Kong and Shanghai.
While COMAC hopes to eventually rival Western manufacturers, the Chinese company’s production of C919 planes is still relatively small.
Euronews notes that COMAC’s current production rate for the C919 is just one per month, a figure dwarfed by Boeing, which makes 38 737 MAX planes per month, and Airbus, which aims to manufacture roughly 75 A320 planes a month by 2027.
However, the issues impacting Boeing and Airbus, including the spate of crashes that has plagued the former and the production and supply issues that have affected the latter, give hope that COMAC could eventually become a viable competitor.
