September 2, 2024
BEIJING – China’s first self-developed narrow-body jet C919 welcomed its 500,000th passenger on Sunday in its flight from Chengdu Tianfu International Airport to Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport, according to C919’s first global customer China Eastern Airlines.
Since launching commercial flights of the very first C919 on May 28, 2023, China Eastern’s C919 fleet has accumulated more than 10,000 hours of safe flight operation as of Sunday and served more than 500,000 passengers via over 3,700 commercial flights.
Since the delivery of the world’s first C919 on December 9, 2022, quite a few firsts have been recorded by the aircraft.
Debuting its commercial flight on May 28, 2023, the jetliner experienced the nation’s busiest traveling period, the Spring Festival travel rush, from January 26 through March 5 this year. The aircraft made its maiden overseas show during the Singapore Airshow. And a C919 jetliner in the fleet of China Eastern Airlines launched its first overseas commercial chartered flight on June 1.
To date, China Eastern’s C919 fleet has expanded to seven jets, operating five C919 regular commercial routes between Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport to Chinese destinations of Beijing, Chengdu of Sichuan province, Xi’an of Shaanxi province, and Guangzhou of Guangdong province, as well as between Xi’an and Beijing.