By Tang Guhan
China's leading airline Hainan Airline (HNA) last Saturday inked a deal with a state-run domestic aircraft manufacturer the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) to buy 100 ARJ21 and 200 C919 aircraft from the latter.
The proprietary intellectual property rights of the ARJ21 aircraft is wholly Chinese. It meets the needs for complicated flight routines as well as landing conditions.
The two sides noted they would export the ARJ21 to Africa via HNA's Ghana AWA Airline branch to meet the demands for regional aircraft in Africa under the Belt and Road Initiative. The move is believed to be part of an effort to expand channels for domestic aircraft abroad.
Besides, the two companies will cooperate in areas of aircraft maintenance and leasing, and staff training among others.
The Chinese government launched its Made in China 2025 Plan in 2015, which includes accelerating the R&D on large aircraft.
China is planning to cover 95 percent of the population with domestic flight services, according to an industry plan. It was predicted that the customer volume for air transportation would reach 700 million in 2020 and 1.5 billion in 2030.
"We predict that the C919 will account for one-third of the Chinese market share in a decade," said people from the COMAC.
Founded in 1993, the HNA has grown as an international airline conglomerate whose total assets exceeded 1.5 trillion yuan as of 2017.
The COMAC, a leading Chinese domestic aircraft manufacturer, is dedicated to domestic aircrafts R&D, manufacturing, selling, leasing, and operations.
