‘Qantas Won’t Buy Chinese Made Aircraft for Safety Reasons’: Aviation Expert Predicts

This photo shows China's first domestically produced large passenger jet C919 in Zhuhai, China, on Nov. 7, 2022. CNS/AFP via Getty Images

The Chinese regime has stepped into the aircraft race against the United States and European Union after it launched C919, the first Chinese-made passenger jet, in December 2022.

While it is too early to tell how things will turn out for the C919, aviation experts have predicted that Australia’s flag carrier Qantas will not get its hands on the Chinese passenger jet any time soon due to safety concerns.

In December 2022, the state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) delivered the first C919 to its customer, China Eastern Airlines, after 15 years of development, which cost tens of billions of dollars.

The narrow-body airliner, which is designed to carry between 158 and 192 passengers with an operating range of 4,075 to 5,555 kilometres, was just certified by the Civil Aviation Administration of China three months earlier.

The C919 is the result of the Chinese regime’s ambition to compete with Boeing’s 737 and Airbus’ A320.

According to an analysis by the Mercator Institute of China Studies, a German think tank focusing on China issues, COMAC has received over 1,000 orders for C919, with more to come.

However, nearly all of its customers are Chinese airlines and leasing companies. The only foreign buyer is GE Capital Aviation Services, a commercial aviation financing and leasing company based in the United States.

Airline Intelligence and Research CEO Tony Weber believed that C919 might attract some interest from international buyers if it was good enough value for money.

“I would think low-cost carriers, in particular, would be looking at this aircraft if it’s 50 to 60 percent cheaper than other similar models,” he said, as reported by The Australian.

However, the CEO noted that airline companies would likely adopt a wait-and-see attitude, saying they wanted to see how the new passenger jet performed for several years before making any decision.

As such, he predicted that Qantas would not consider putting C919 in its fleets any time soon.

“Qantas won’t go anywhere near it. Having a Chinese carrier in your fleet would be a hard sell for a full service carrier that relies heavily on their safety record,” Weber said.

C919 Is Not Entirely Made in China

While Chinese state-run media has touted C919 as a big success in China’s aviation industry, there is an obvious fact that most of the aircraft’s components were produced outside the country.

Richard Bitzinger, an independent international security analyst, wrote in an opinion piece for The Epoch Times that only around 25 percent of the overall value of the C919 was actually Chinese, mostly in the manufacture of the fuselage and wings, as well as final assembly.

“The plane relies heavily on Western suppliers for critical components and subsystems, including its avionics, landing gear, nacelles, flight controls, and—most importantly—jet engines,” he wrote.

“Around 60 percent of these foreign suppliers to the C919 are U.S. companies, such as General Electric, Honeywell, and Eaton.”

China Eastern Airlines staff members check a C919 aircraft in Hubei, China, on Jan. 16, 2023. STR/AFP via Getty Images

Another problem with C919 is the plane is unlikely to be built with cutting-edge technology.

This is because suppliers fear that the Chinese regime will steal their technology if they provide state-of-the-art components.

“A supplier would have to be out of their mind to provide the latest and best,” Richard Aboulafia, a consultant with AeroDynamic Advisory, said in comments obtained by Forbes.

Echoing the sentiment, aviation consultant Michael Boyd said C919 was yesterday’s technology available today.

“Domestically, the open question is how much damage the [Chinese Communist Party] will do to Chinese carriers by forcing them to fly these things,” he said.

C919 Does Not Have Much Price Advantage

Unlike Chinese-made cars and some hi-tech products, C919 is not a cheap aircraft.

Bloomberg reported that China Eastern Airlines acquired the C919 for roughly US$99 million ($149 million), compared to US$111 million for an A320 or US$122 million for a Boeing 737.

Bitzinger said C919’s production cost was twice the original price proposed at the beginning of the development.

While COMAC still depends on foreign suppliers for the production of C919, the Chinese regime has a goal to manufacture all of the plane’s components in China.

This has prompted the Chinese regime to resort to underhanded measures such as using hackers.

According to a document by the U.S. Department of Justice, a district court in California issued an indictment in 2017 charging several hackers affiliated with the Chinese regime for launching a hacking operation to steal the technology of international suppliers of aircraft components.