COMAC flew a C919 from Shanghai to Hong Kong. The plane landed. Everyone acted like this was news.
Boeing and Airbus have been doing this exact thing for seven decades. They've perfected the art of building metal tubes that don't fall out of the sky. The bar for competition is "make a plane that works." COMAC cleared it. The financial media is now breathless about whether this threatens the duopoly.
Here's the threat assessment: China spent twenty years and tens of billions of dollars to build a plane that carries fewer people than a 737, uses Western engines because they couldn't make their own, and just completed its first international flight to a city that's been part of China since 1997. Calling Hong Kong "international" is technically correct in the same way that calling a glass of tap water a beverage is technically correct.
The C919 seats 164 passengers. It competes with planes Boeing and Airbus designed during the Carter administration. COMAC's revolutionary strategy is to build something their competitors already sold 10,000 copies of, then act surprised when airlines that aren't legally required to buy Chinese don't immediately place orders.
Retail traders are probably googling "how to invest in COMAC stock" right now, unaware that it's a state-owned enterprise they can't buy, which has never turned a profit, and exists primarily so China can say they build airplanes. The company's business model is "the government pays for everything forever." Sustainable.
The duopoly isn't scared. They're doing what they always do when someone announces they'll disrupt aviation: nothing. Because building planes that people want to buy requires more than one successful flight to a city 800 miles away.
COMAC's biggest accomplishment is making Boeing look competent by comparison.
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