China's ARJ21 jetliner advances in delivery, scale of operation

China's independently-developed ARJ21 regional jetliner has entered a phase of accelerated deliveries and large scale commercial operation, according to civil aviation authorities.

A newly-delivered ARJ21 jetliner is seen at the Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport in Chongqing, southwest China, Nov. 10, 2020. [Photo/Xinhua]

As of now, a total of 41 ARJ21 airplanes have been delivered to eight domestic customers with expanded commercial operations in the market, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said.

The progress of ARJ21 ensues from the CAAC's persistent support and efforts in the airworthiness certification works on China's civil airplanes.

The CAAC will continuously support its developer Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China in further improving and enhancing the ARJ21 aircraft model, the CAAC said.

Deliveries and commercial operations are major indicators of the value of market performance of a civil aircraft model.

ARJ21 has seen accelerated deliveries in recent years, with six planes delivered in 2018 and 12 in 2019. As of mid-December this year, the total deliveries of ARJ21 aircraft reached 19, data from the CAAC showed.

Civil aviation authorities will enhance the quality and safety supervision of homegrown civil airplanes in both production and commercial operation phases, the CAAC said.

ARJ21 is China's first turbofan regional passenger jetliner. Designed with a capacity of 78 to 90 seats and a range of 3,700 km, it can fly in alpine and plateau regions and adapt to varying airport conditions.

As a pioneer of Chinese commercial airplanes, the ARJ21 was put into commercial service by Chengdu Airlines in June 2016.

As of November, ARJ21 airplanes had been used on 86 routes connecting 64 cities and carried more than 1.31 million passengers in commercial operations, according to Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China.