Economic News
China's C919 gets mountain-ready variant as homegrown jets eye the world 2026-08-03
A shortened, lighter version of China's domestically developed C919 jetliner took to the sky over Shanghai last week.
It aims to clear the first hurdle toward becoming the country's first domestically built jet capable of serving the southwestern Xizang Autonomous Region and other high-altitude regions.
That niche is currently dominated by Airbus's aging A319, whose production is winding down with no clear successor yet certified.
The C919-600, known as the highland variant, lifted off from Pudong International Airport's fourth runway around 8am and flew for nearly two hours, completing all planned test objectives, according to its developer, the Commercial Aircraft Corp of China, or COMAC.
Source: City News Service
