China Eastern Airlines (CEA) has announced the inauguration of its fourth commercial scheduled route for the domestically manufactured C919 aircraft. Starting this Friday, flight MU5309 will depart from Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport at 9:30 a.m., arriving at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport at 11:55 a.m. The return flight, MU5316, is set to leave Guangzhou at 1:30 p.m. and land in Shanghai by 4:00 p.m.
With this launch, CEA now operates six C919 jets, making it the sole carrier utilizing China’s homegrown large aircraft. The addition of this flight boosts the Shanghai-Guangzhou route's capacity to 36 daily flights, highlighting improved connectivity between these major cities.
Last month saw the addition of the sixth C919 to CEA's fleet, marking a significant acceleration in the commercial operations of China’s C919 jetliner. This milestone comes a year after the inaugural commercial flight of the C919, as China continues to position its self-developed trunk jetliner to compete in the global civil aviation market, which is currently dominated by Boeing and Airbus.
Over the past year, the C919 has been operating on three key routes from Shanghai: to Chengdu Tianfu International Airport, Beijing Daxing International Airport, and Xi'an Xianyang International Airport.
Reference(s):
cgtn.com
