In 2024, the commercial operation of the domestic regional jet airliner ARJ21 will celebrate its eighth anniversary. As of the end of June 2024, COMAC has delivered 139 ARJ21 aircraft to customers around the world, and its total order book has exceeded 400. The ARJ21 is in service with 12 airlines around the world, with a cumulative flight time of 420,000 hours and the safe transport of more than 13.73 million passengers. In addition, ARJ21 has also successfully opened more than 10 international routes and obtained airworthiness certifications from six countries including Russia, Malaysia and Indonesia, demonstrating its competitiveness and wide recognition in the international market.
Eight years ago, on June 28, 2016, the ARJ21 achieved its first commercial operation with Chengdu Airlines. In the early morning of the same day, the first ARJ21-700 passenger aircraft with registration number B-3321 of Chengdu Airlines took off from Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport and flew the first commercial flight EU6679 to Shanghai Hongqiao Airport with 70 passengers.
This moment not only marks the official launch of the first self-developed jet regional airliner ARJ21 in mainland China, but also means that China's sky has ushered in the first self-developed jet regional airliner, thus opening a new era of domestic civil aircraft.
Up to now, ARJ-21 has two models: the passenger version of ARJ-21-700 and the cargo version of ARJ-21-700F, which are operated by 12 airlines, including Chengdu Airlines, Tianjiao Airlines, 123 Airlines, Zhongyuan Longhao Airlines, YTO Airlines, Huaxia Airlines, COMAC Express, Jiangxi Airlines, Air China, China Southern Airlines, China Aviation General Aviation and Indonesia Lingya Airlines.
Since it was put into commercial operation, the ARJ21 aircraft has safely flown for a total of 420,000 hours, safely carried 13.73 million passengers, opened more than 350 routes, and navigated 136 domestic cities.
According to COMAC's customer service department, a total of 27,332 ARJ21 professionals in four fields have been trained, including pilots, mechanics, flight attendants and operation control, and 26 on-site representatives have been dispatched to 11 domestic and foreign airlines except COMAC. This means that each airline has an average of 2 to 3 COMAC representatives, forming a normalized operation mode, showing that the stability of the overall operation chain of ARJ21 is quite high.
As the first commercial aircraft in mainland China to complete the whole process of jetliner design, manufacturing, testing, flight test, batch production, delivery and operation, the ARJ21 aircraft has basically the same operational performance and operation level as mainstream models in the fleet of various airlines, and the safety and reliability of the aircraft have been fully tested by airlines and the civil aviation market, and have won the praise of many Chinese and foreign passengers.
At present, there are 3 ARJ21-700 95-seat aircraft operated by Indonesia Lingya Airlines, which has opened 8 international and domestic routes in Southeast Asia, safely transporting more than 160,000 passengers, and the average daily utilization rate has reached 8 hours, and the average daily flight has reached 5 flights, both exceeding the average utilization rate of ARJ21 aircraft operated by domestic airlines.
In the near future, ARJ21 will enter Vietnam's regional aviation market through wet lease. It is understood that the ARJ21 route is operated by a well-known private airline in Vietnam, which is specifically responsible for flight operation and management tasks, while Chengdu Airlines is responsible for flight operations. Wet lease is a common type of operation in the global aviation industry, where one airline leases another airline's aircraft, crew and maintenance services to operate a specific route.
In addition, there are three international routes operated by ARJ21 operated by domestic airlines, namely the round-trip route from Harbin to Vladivostok, Russia, which was opened by Chengdu on October 26, 2019; YTO Cargo's scheduled cargo route from Kashgar to Tashkent on June 6, 2024; Chengdu Airlines will launch a round-trip route from Kashgar to Huzhan on June 7, 2024.
While the ARJ21 regional airliner has won wide acclaim and recognition for its excellent performance in the international regional aviation market, the internationalization process of its airworthiness certification has also made significant progress. Through continuous efforts, ARJ21 has successfully obtained FATA certification from the Russian Air Transport Agency, ANAC certification from the Civil Aviation Authority of the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville), DGCA certification from the Civil Aviation Authority of Indonesia, and CAAM certification from the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia. In addition, the ARJ21 will receive DCA certification from the Civil Aviation Authority of Brunei Darussalam and CAAV certification from the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam.
COMAC has not only launched the ARJ21 passenger aircraft and cargo aircraft on the market, but also actively developed the ARJ21 high prototype and various derivative models such as business aircraft, fire extinguishers, medical aircraft, meteorological aircraft, and emergency rescue command aircraft. It is gratifying that the business and medical aircraft have obtained the airworthiness certification of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) and are expected to join the civil aviation market from 2025 onwards, bringing more choices to the aviation industry in China and even around the world.
As COMAC ARJ21 ramps up to ramp up, 33 will be delivered in 2024 and 36 in 2025, on the basis of 22 delivered in 2023. As of June 30, 2024, 139 ARJ21s have been delivered, completing the production and delivery of 16.5 aircraft in half a year ahead of schedule.
It is understood that the performance parameters of ARJ21 are: the number of seats is 70-90 seats, the fuselage length is 33.46 meters, the fuselage height is 8.44 meters, the wingspan is 27.29 meters, the fuselage width is 3.14 meters, the cabin width is 2.74 meters, the cabin height is 2.03 meters, the runway length required for full load take-off is 1900 meters, and the maximum cargo load can reach 10 tons.
It has a maximum take-off weight of 40.5 tons, a maximum range of 3700 km, a cruising speed of 828 km / h, and a maximum flight speed of 870 km / h. Two GE CF34-10A turbofan engines are used in the tail, each with a thrust of 8.5 tons. The aircraft catalogue offer is $38 million each.
Of course, nothing is perfect, and neither is our ARJ21. For example, the ARJ is 16% heavier than the Bombardier CRJ and 14.4% heavier than the Embraer E-175 in all three regional airliners that use GECF-34 engines. As a result, the CRJ only needs 14,500 pounds of thrust, the E-175 needs 14,200 pounds, and the ARJ needs to increase to 17,000 pounds of thrust.
The thrust of the engine is also closely related to the amount of fuel consumption and the economy of aircraft operation. With an empty weight of 24.95 tons, the ARJ21 is not as fuel-efficient, altitude-and-range as the lighter-weight and less powerful CRJ and E-175, despite having a single engine thrust of 8.5 tons.
The attributes of everything often contain two sides of contradiction. Although the ARJ21 is heavier than its competitors, it is significantly more spacious than its competitors. The ARJ21's cabin is 22.8 percent wider compared to the Bombardier CRJ Series and 14.8 percent wider compared to Embraer's E-175. Its advantages are not limited to more seat space, wider seat pitch, more aisle space, and a quieter cabin environment, especially its first class cabin, which can be configured with four seats, bringing passengers more spaciousness and comfort.