The first C919 passenger aircraft of Air China completed its maiden flight

According to a report by Lianhe Zaobao of Singapore on August 10, the first C919 passenger aircraft of Air China completed its maiden flight.

The report said that "Aviation Industry", the official Weibo account of Aviation Industry Corporation of China, posted on the 10th that the first C919 passenger aircraft of Air China conducted its maiden flight on the 9th. The aircraft's temporary registration number is B-002M and is planned to be delivered to Air China at the end of August.

The official website of Air China previously announced the cabin layout of its C919 passenger aircraft, featuring a two-class layout with 158 seats, including 8 business class seats and 150 economy class seats. This is the loosest cabin layout known for the C919 passenger aircraft.

It was reported that Air China issued an announcement in April this year stating that the company purchased 100 C919 aircraft from Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China Ltd. These 100 aircraft are planned to be delivered to Air China in batches from 2024 to 2031.

In addition to Air China, Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China Ltd has also signed agreements to sell 100 aircraft with China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines.

The aircraft purchased by Air China is the C919 range-extended model, which belongs to the serialized and derivative models of the C919. Relevant data shows that the biggest difference between the C919 range-extended passenger aircraft and the ordinary C919 is that the maximum takeoff weight has increased and can reach 78.9 tons, which is 3.8 tons more than the ordinary version.

The C919 passenger aircraft is a large jet civil aircraft independently developed by China and with independent intellectual property rights. Its design is benchmarked against the Airbus 320 and Boeing 737 models in the current international aviation market.