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Frank Chen

Beijing aims to accelerate the rise of China’s home-grown airliner fleet, including the C909 regional plane, C919 narrowbody and C929 widebody, through 2030.
This push to challenge the duopoly of Boeing and Airbus comes as a national five-year plan calls for aircraft production, development and the roll-out of a domestically developed engine.
The next five years will prove vital to the success of the three aircraft models and the continued localisation of critical parts such as engines, according to an analyst. The road map addresses vulnerabilities amid ongoing disruptions and geopolitical turmoil.
China will boost production and strengthen supply chains. Specialised models will be developed – including a high-plateau variant designed to operate at high-altitude airports, where thinner air reduces engine performance and lift. And efforts will be stepped up to resolve technological hurdles in widebody-jet development.
These goals form part of the latest national plan, which is set to be approved by the top legislature this week and will guide socio-economic development in the 2026 to 2030 period. The certification and use of a high-bypass turbofan engine, the CJ-1000, will also be accelerated, the plan noted.
“For the C919, the key words are output and supply chains,” said Brian Yang Bo, a veteran aviation consultant. “This is a candid admission of the challenges it has faced, and thus the focus is squarely on stabilising and growing output.”
The narrowbody jet is the flagship model from the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac) and has been in domestic operations since May 2023.


However, geopolitical and trade headwinds in 2025 disrupted production, marked by a temporary supply suspension of the Leap-1C engine from CFM International, a joint venture of America’s GE Aerospace and France’s Safran. Comac delivered only 15 C919s to customers last year – well short of its original annual output target of 75.
“This is precisely why the CJ-1000 got a specific mention in the plan, as supply-chain stability boils down to this,” Yang assessed, adding that the engine was meant to guarantee production as a backup, not as a replacement for the advanced Leap engine.
Yang said the Aero Engine Corporation of China had finalised the CJ-1000’s design and was working on airworthiness approval. Certification may not be far off, and in the next two or three years, the engine is expected to power a Comac plane in its operational debut, he said.
The twin-aisle C929, often compared to the continental-hopping Boeing 787 and Airbus A350, remains under development.
Yang said that Comac still had its work cut out for it, particularly in terms of assembling prototypes for maiden flights in the next five years, but he expects strong state support.
The South China Morning Post reported in February that Comac and specialists from the Civil Aviation Administration of China had collaborated on the widebody programme to hammer out design and certification requirements, and that preliminary wind-tunnel tests had already begun, signalling smooth progress.
Yang said the absence of a mention in the five-year plan of the C919’s certification in Europe, and of the jet’s first overseas order, served as evidence of prudence and flexibility.
“[Overseas certifications and initial orders of the C919] are not fully in Beijing’s control, so no hard deadlines are set,” Yang said. “But there is no sign that Comac will give up on these goals.”


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Amid geopolitical risks and supply-chain disruptions, Beijing is looking to shore up self-sufficiency in aircraft components, and an analyst says it has its work cut out


Amid geopolitical risks and supply-chain disruptions, Beijing is looking to shore up self-sufficiency in aircraft components, and an analyst says it has its work cut out.
