Photo: Courtesy of China Southern Airlines

 
China Southern Airlines' C919 airliner made a debut flight at Beijing Daxing International Airport on Tuesday, further expanding the company's commercial services of the home-grown aircraft.  

At 11:31 am on Tuesday, China Southern Airlines flight CZ3137, operated by the homegrown C919 aircraft, landed smoothly at Beijing Daxing. At 1:34 pm, the C919 carrying 154 passengers took off from Beijing Daxing to return to Changsha in Central China's Hunan Province.

Starting from Wednesday, it will regularly operate one round-trip flight.

China Southern Airlines said on August 29 that since the domestically produced C919 large aircraft entered service one year ago, it has carried over 460,000 passenger trips and logged approximately 7,800 hours of safe operation. Over the past year till August 29, China Southern Airlines has received five C919 aircraft from the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China. 

During the peak summer travel season this year, all five aircraft in China Southern Airlines' C919 fleet were fully operational, with an average of 17 flights per day. At the peak, the daily utilization rate of the C919 aircraft reached 8.3 hours, the company said.

By the end of May, the C919 marked its second anniversary of commercial operations. To date, 18 C919 aircraft have been delivered to China Eastern Airlines, Air China, and China Southern Airlines, operating on 24 routes across 16 cities and carrying over 2 million passenger trips, Xinhua News Agency reported on May 28. 

As of May 27, China Eastern Airlines' C919 fleet had logged over 28,000 safe flight hours, completed more than 11,400 commercial flights, and transported over 1.57 million passenger trips, according to a statement from the carrier to the Global Times.

China's domestically-produced C919 passenger jet made its debut on scheduled services between Shanghai and Hong Kong on January 1, representing a significant milestone in the country's aviation manufacturing sector, reported the Xinhua News Agency.

Decorated in a special design symbolizing "Chinese red," the narrow-body airliner operated by China Eastern Airlines took off from Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport at 8:21 am, carrying 157 passengers, and landed in Hong Kong at 10:44 am, followed by a ceremonial water salute, said Xinhua.

The C919 is a narrow-body passenger aircraft with a maximum capacity of 192 seats. It is China's first self-developed trunk jetliner, built in accordance with international airworthiness standards and featuring independently registered intellectual property rights.

Global Times