China's C919 passenger plane enters into service

Key Facts

Image source, AFP Image caption, Special red boarding passes were handed out during the first commercial flight of a C919 plane China's first domestically-manufactured large passenger jet has successfully completed its maiden commercial flight.
Designed to compete with large jumbo jets from Europe's Airbus and the US airplane maker Boeing, the C919 can carry many more passengers and has a much longer range than its little brother, the ARJ21 - China's first domestic jet, in service since 2016.
Comac - which plans to produce 150 planes annually in five years' time - says it has already secured more than 1,200 orders for the C919.
President Xi Jinping, who sat in the cockpit of a mock-up C919 a few years ago, has described the project as one of China's most innovative achievements.