ARJ21 marks 2nd anniversary as passenger number hits milestone
China's first domestically developed regional jet, the ARJ21, welcomed its 100,000th passenger on the second anniversary of its commercial operation on Thursday.
The Chengdu Airlines flight EU6665 took off from Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport at 6:50am and landed at Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport around noon with a stopover in Changsha in central Hunan Province. The airline incidentally is the first and only commercial operator of the 90-seater jet so far.
The flight marked two years of safe and smooth operation for the ARJ21, since it began commercial operations on June 28, 2016, according to Commercial Aircraft Corp of China (COMAC), the jet’s developer.
The 100,000th passenger was presented with a free return ticket on any routes being operated by ARJ21.
"The ARJ21 has been able to fly under all kinds of weather conditions stipulated by China's airworthiness regulation," COMAC announced on Thursday. Chengdu Airlines deploys the jet on eight routes between Chengdu in southwestern Sichuan Province and Shanghai as well as Wenzhou in neighboring Zhejiang Province and Nantong in eastern Jiangsu Province.
The ARJ21 is designed to fly in conditions prevalent in China’s central and western regions. It can take off and land at nearly all the highland airports in the country. It can also fly in temperatures below minus 30 degrees Celsius, COMAC revealed.
Chengdu Airlines has trained 28 specialized pilots for ARJ21, along with 17 flight crew and 85 repairmen, the airline said on Thursday.
The ARJ21 has 78 to 90 seats and a range of up to 3,700 kilometers. The jet has so far secured 453 orders from 21 companies at home and abroad.