Vietnam’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAAV) has conducted a detailed assessment of the COMAC C909 aircraft, as budget airline Vietjet Air has proposed introducing two of these Chinese-made planes into service in Vietnam.
China’s has been exerting all of its efforts to expand its presence in international aviation markets through Commercial Aircraft Corporation’s (COMAC) C909 and C919 planes, and recently it's aiming Vietnam‘s approval to authorise the planes for use in the country, according to sources familiar with the discussions and documents.
After months of talks, Vietnam’s top private airline VietJet, was supposed to start on Jan. 15 the short-term lease for a domestic route of two C909 regional jets operated by crew from China’s Chengdu Airlines, according to documents seen by Reuters that provide insight into its strategy.
But Vietnam’s aviation regulator has yet to authorise the deal, cautious about greenlighting a plane currently certified only by China and Indonesia, the two people and a third person said.
Currently, COMAC’s jetliners, the C909 and C919, operate almost exclusively within mainland China. The state-owned company, however, has ambitions to broaden its reach to other parts of Asia and further afield, competing with the world’s two leading aircraft manufacturers – the US’s Boeing and Europe’s Airbus.
The lease had been reported by Vietnam’s media, however the approval delay, VietJet’s longer-term strategy for COMAC jets and the planemaker’s efforts to win regulatory approval, including offering favourable financial terms and training, have not been previously reported.
The two people with knowledge of VietJet’s talks with COMAC said the Chinese offer was under very attractive financial terms that one of the people said were “too good to resist.”
The up to 90-seat C909, until November known as the ARJ21, was China’s first jet engine-powered plane to reach commercial production and entered service in 2016, with around 160 delivered so far.
VietJet had been talking to a foreign lessor for months to rent two E190 regional jets built by Brazil’s Embraer the top global maker of 90-seat jets, separate sources familiar with the discussions said, with one adding pilots had been in the process of being hired for those planes.
But the talks collapsed late last year, Vietnamese media reported. VietJet intended to use either the Embraer or COMAC planes to connect Vietnam’s main cities to the tourist archipelago of Con Dao, where larger jets cannot land.
From January 15 to January 24, a delegation from CAAV visited Shanghai, China, to inspect COMAC’s production facilities and meet with the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC). Their review covered aircraft design, safety standards, manufacturing processes, testing protocols, and maintenance procedures.
In a preliminary report submitted to the Ministry of Construction, CAAV confirmed that:
COMAC has been mass-producing the ARJ21-700 (C909), which has received both Type Certification (TC) and Production Certification from China’s aviation authority.
As of January 7, 2025, COMAC has delivered 160 C909 aircraft to 12 airlines, with 11 in China and 1 in Indonesia (TransNusa, since 2022).
The fleet has accumulated over 550,000 flight hours, conducted more than 330,000 takeoffs and landings, and transported over 19 million passengers worldwide.
The aircraft is currently in use by several major airlines, including:
According to CAAV’s Report, there have been no major accidents or serious safety incidents involving the C909 since its commercial launch. Key performance indicators from 2024 include:
Comparing Chinese CAAC aviation regulations with FAA (US) and EASA (EU) standards, CAAV suggested recognizing China’s aircraft design and manufacturing certifications to facilitate aircraft imports.
To enable the COMAC C909’s introduction in Vietnam, CAAV has proposed modifications to aviation business regulations, including:
Once these regulatory changes are approved, CAAV will formally issue a Type Certificate (TC) recognition for the C909 aircraft in Vietnam.
At the Vietnam–China Business Forum on February 28, COMAC Board Member Dam Van Canh emphasized that strengthening Vietnam-China aviation cooperation remains a core strategy for the company.
He also confirmed that under the direction of the Ministry of Transport (now under the Ministry of Construction) and CAAV, COMAC and Vietjet Air have completed all necessary preparations for leasing and deploying the C909 in Vietnam.
COMAC’s current production rate for the C919 narrow body aircraft is just one per month, a figure that's nothing comparead to Boeing, which manufactures 38 B737 MAX aircraft per month, and Airbus, which aims to manufacture roughly 75 A320 aircraft a month by 2027.
However, the issues impacting Boeing and Airbus, including the spate of crashes that has plagued the former and the production and supply issues that have affected the latter, give hope that COMAC could eventually become a viable competitor.
Worth noting here, in May last year, Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr did not answer favourably on the prospects of the C919 aircraft. When asked whether he could imagine buying Chinese aircraft (Comac C919), Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr didn't consider the option.
Carsten Spohr said :
"Given the safety standards we apply at the Lufthansa Group, I don't think that's realistic for the coming years."
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