C919 Doubles In Price

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China is in danger of pricing itself out of the market with its new C919 narrow body airliner according to The Straits Times. The Singapore publication is reporting the new plane will cost about $100 million, almost as much as the A320neo and Boeing 737 MAX which now dominate that market. China had hoped the plane would come in at about $50 million, giving it a big edge over the Western competitors. An A320neo is about $111 million and the MAX is about $117 million.

The publication arrived at the C919 cost by examining a filing by China Eastern Airlines to the Shanghai Stock Exchange in which it says it intends to raise the money to buy four of the Chinese-built aircraft. The four C919s are part of a spending spree by the airline that includes 24 Chinese ARJ21-700 regional jets, six Airbus A350s and four Boeing 787-900s.

Russ Niles
Russ Niles is Editor-in-Chief of AVweb. He has been a pilot for 30 years and joined AVweb 22 years ago. He and his wife Marni live in southern British Columbia where they also operate a small winery.

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14 COMMENTS

  1. So the exchange rate of real dollars vs aviation dollars holds true in China as well. Need to take a page from Airbus playbook and have the government subsidize the other $50MM

  2. There’s also that factor than the market that is closed to western competitors has grown substantially, and may continue to do so.

  3. The Communist Chinese will manipulate their currency and use any trick in the book to be competitive. Ultimately this is about risk avoidance. No way would I fly on an airplane made in China. A country that enslaves large swaths of its citizens, limits free speech and access to the truth, persecutes people of faith and tolerates piracy of intellectual property deserves to collapse, which is what will eventually happen to it. The one hope for Communist China is the rapid but rarely-reported growth of Christianity there, despite brutal oppression by its dictatorial regime.

    • A lot of people would disagree that Christianity is any panacea. Christianity is a bane of humanity with gobs of evidence to prove how bad humans can be to each other. Watch how our Christian political leaders in this country tout how devout they are yet pass legislation that would make Jesus Christ cringe. Nope, ain’t going to buy that.

    • A lot of people would agree that Christianity is anything but a bane and that it is a panacea for many or all of the world’s problems.

      • Agreed.

        Christianity is the only hope, just as salt was in Biblical times a preservative the Word is the only hope for China. And the US. Any everyone, everywhere.

        Also, I’d not choose to fly in a Chinese jet over an American or South American or European one.

        Because I don’t fear death I wouldn’t care a ton, but I’d never prefer it.

    • There is no god, please don’t spread that nonsense anywhere. Christianity and other religions were invented to enslave men and justify wars; tens of millions have died “in the name of god.”
      Otherwise, cite proof of god, and why he likes death.

    • A physician partner of mine is a Chinese expatriate who became a Christian and is doing his best to spread the Word back in hi home country. Wonderful physician, strong brave man.

  4. I would never be at the mercy of a communist government that, at the flip of a SW, detonate the very airliner I would never be in…who knows what spying device or destruction device is included in the price of the airliner…

  5. i agree that china is not as good as many other countries, but i dont think that it is as bad as people are making out. please dont be racist.

    • Please do all of us a favor:
      Buy a dictionary. Look up “racist.”
      Then apologise for slandering those who disagree with the policies and practices of the government of communist China.
      Racism has nothing to do with it. It’s intellectually lazy and morally repugnant.
      Shame on you.

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