COMAC Secures 10 Orders Each for C919 and ARJ21-700

Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC), City Airways, and ICBC Financial Leasing Co. Ltd. Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding on the purchase of 10 C919s and 10 ARJ21-700s at the 16th Aviation Expo China held in Beijing.

With the announcement of the deal, the Thai low-cost carrier becomes the 21st customer of the C919 and the 20th customer of the ARJ21-700.

Tian Min, Chief Financial Officer of COMAC, said, COMAC will cooperate with City Airways and ICBC Leading to exploit the future air travel market, provide passengers with more travel options and jointly promote the development of the civil aviation sector.

It is an important strategic decision for City Airways to choose the modern China-made jets to speed up the airline's business development and improve its aviation business, which will provide sufficient capacity to meet the travel demand in Thailand and its neighboring countries, president of City Airways said at the signing ceremony.

City Airways was founded in March 2001. Based at Bangkok's Don Mueang International Airport, the budget airline operates scheduled domestic and international charter services from Bangkok and other destinations in Thailand. It owns a fleet of two Boeing 737-400s and four -800s.

Lawson Marsh acquired City Airways in September 2014. After the restructuring, the airline has a new shareholding structure and turns around its performance under the new management. It plans to launch an initial public offering in Hong Kong in 2017.

The carrier said it will boost its capacity and step up its fleet expansion in the next three years. According to its 2015 plan, it will take delivery of 15 new aircraft and launch flights from Thailand to a dozen of Chinese destinations, such as Nanjing, Tianjin, Changsha, Nanchang, etc.