China’s Comac C919 narrowbody passenger aircraft, representing a major step into modern commercial aviation, may not receive certification from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) for another three to six years. EASA Executive Director Florian Guillermet, in an interview with the French weekly l’Usine Nouvelle, gave this estimate, as reported by Aviation Week.
This announcement means the C919 will enter the market competition with the Airbus A320neo and Boeing 737 MAX significantly later than Comac had initially planned. While the Chinese manufacturer had expected European certification by 2025, the timeline has now shifted to between 2028 and 2031. As a result, the C919 will only begin competing with its major Western rivals more than a decade after they enter into service—and with technology that, at best, will be comparable.
Unlike in the automotive industry, where China has already achieved significant success, its aviation sector still needs to prove its competitiveness. Comac’s previous model, the regional ARJ21, also relied on numerous Western systems but never reached large-scale production. However, collaboration with EASA could lay the groundwork for faster recognition of certifications from China’s Civil Aviation Administration (CAAC) in the future.
According to Guillermet, joint work between Comac and EASA began four years ago, with two of those years being particularly intensive. It is based on the EU-China Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreement, which came into force in 2020, before CAAC certified the C919 in September 2022.
For Western aircraft, the certification process typically takes one to two years after the first flight, while validation under a bilateral agreement can be completed in about six months. However, these procedures involve agencies with a long history of cooperation.
“We still need to conduct evaluations of the aircraft’s design and individual components, including test flights,” said Guillermet. Although the C919 uses numerous Western components, such as the CFM International Leap-1C engine, nearly identical to those on the Airbus A320neo, EASA must assess the overall design and integration work. Despite this, Guillermet does not doubt that Comac will obtain the necessary certification.
According to Aviation Week Fleet Discovery data, 15 C919 aircraft are currently in operation, flying with Chinese airlines.
