Brunei's startup airline, Gallop Air, is poised to become the second international carrier to introduce the COMAC C919 narrow body aircraft in its fleet, and eventually the first carrier to import the aircraft from China.
Till date, COMAC C919, that has been in news to be a competitor of Airbus A320 family and Boeing B737 family aircraft , is in domestic use of China , being used by the launch customer China Eastern Airlines from May 28 Onwards.
The single aisle aircraft produced by Chinese aircraft manufacturer Comac and Powered by CFM International LEAP -1C engines , is yet to get some big orders from Major Airlines across the continents , due to market dominance of Airbus and Boeing at present.
However, a Bruneian-based aviation company GallopAir is aiming to import 30 planes from the Chinese planemaker Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC), that will include the first overseas purchases of the state-backed firm’s narrow-body C919 jet.
GallopAir said in a statement on September 20 that it had signed a letter of intent to purchase the aircraft, worth USD2 billion in total, at a regional trade event in China last week.
The deal includes 15 orders of COMAC’s ARJ21 aircraft – including its freighter and business jet variants – and 15 of the C919, which completed its maiden commercial flight in May.
The C919 was developed by COMAC to rival Airbus SE’s A320neo and Boeing Co’s 737 MAX single-aisle jet families. The deal was disclosed by China-based Shaanxi Tianju Investment Group, an investor in GallopAir, in a WeChat post on Monday.
GallopAir said the aircraft from COMAC will need to undergo due diligence and certification processes by Brunei’s Department of Civil Aviation prior to delivery.
“Flight operations are forecasted to begin in the third quarter of 2024,” GallopAir said.
Once completed, the deal would make GallopAir the second international operator of Chinese-made aircraft after Indonesian low-cost carrier TransNusa, which operates a small fleet of the ARJ21 aircraft, a predecessor to the C919.
Gallop was incorporated in Singapore in 2021, but remained inactive mostly, without any presser on its plans. However, its linkedin page reads,
"GallopAir is a Brunei based New Airline, working to provide efficient and reliable hybrid flight services majority with in BIMP-EAGA.by operating its own fleet of aircraft."
Once in operation, GallopAir will be the second Brunei-based airline operator after national carrier Royal Brunei Airlines. As per the company, it intends to provide flight services in the Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area.
