Comac Delivers Only 15 C919 Jets in 2025, Well Short of 75-Target
Shanghai-based aircraft maker faces supply chain constraints and manpower shortages as it struggles to scale production of its Boeing 737 competitor
En resumen
- Comac delivered just 15 C919 single-aisle jets in 2025, far short of its 75-unit target, as the Shanghai-based manufacturer grapples with supply chain dependencies on Western suppliers for engines and avionics, alongside persistent manpower shortages.
- The aircraft, intended to compete with Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 families, sources most airframe components domestically but relies on foreign suppliers for critical core systems.
Resumen generado por IA
Por qué importa
Comac's C919 is China's flagship effort to develop a domestically produced single-aisle passenger jet to compete with established Western aircraft manufacturers. The program has been in development for years and represents China's strategic ambition to reduce dependence on foreign aerospace technology.
The Shanghai-based Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac) is facing external and internal constraints, including reliance on foreign suppliers for critical components and persistent manpower shortages, said the source, who added that other optimisations to design and production were already under way. "Aircraft manufacturing has long and fiendishly complex supply chains … It involves a lot of planning and effort to add just one more jet to the delivery queue," the person said on condition of anonymity, as the source was not authorised to speak to the media. "Not a single link, a single piece in the supply chain can be missing. Similarly, not a single part of the hundreds of thousands of bolts, wires and systems that make up an airliner can be omitted, before we are satisfied with quality and safety so that a delivery can be made." Comac delivered only 15 units of the C919 – a single-aisle passenger jet intended to compete with the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 families – to customers in 2025, well short of its initial target of 75. Most of the components making up the jet's airframe – including the nose, cockpit, wings, fuselage and tail – are sourced domestically, as efforts to expand localisation continue. But core systems, including the engine and avionics, still come from Western suppliers.
Preguntas abiertas
- What specific steps is Comac taking to address the supply chain constraints?
- How quickly can Comac increase domestic production of engines and avionics?
- What is the timeline for Comac to meet its delivery targets?
