China’s Comac Lands Its Biggest International Customer Yet

Vietnam’s largest airline has signed an agreement for Chinese-built Comac aircraft – a modest deal on paper, but one that raises broader considerations for the global aviation industry. 

Vietjet has agreed to lease 10 Comac C909 aircraft, and while the deal is limited in scale, the significance lies in the customer. The carrier and its subsidiaries operate more than 130 aircraft, with hundreds more on order from Airbus and Boeing.

Vietjet said the agreement would support the gradual introduction of Comac aircraft on routes between Vietnam and China. It builds on an earlier arrangement that sees a pair of C909s operated in partnership with Chinese carrier Chengdu Airlines.

The C909 is produced by Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac), a state-owned firm founded in 2008 to develop passenger airliners.

Previously marketed as the ARJ21, the C909 sits in the regional segment with between 78 and 97 seats, and is closer in size to an E