Chinese leasing firm orders 45 indigenous C919s
21 Oct 2011
The financial leasing arm of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, ICBC Leasing, has ordered 45 C919s, bringing total orders for the country's home-grown large passenger plane to 145, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
The Comac C919 is a planned family of 168-190 seat narrow-body airliners to be built by the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac).
It will be the largest commercial airliner designed and built in China with first flight scheduled for 2014 and deliveries lined up for 2016.
The C919 forms part of China's long-term goal to break Airbus and Boeing's duopoly, and will compete against Airbus A320neo and the Boeing 737 MAX.
ICBC Leasing signed the deal with Comac, the country's state-owned plane maker, to expand fleet size in a bid to meet the country's rapidly growing demand for air travel, it said.
Neither ICBC Leasing nor Comac disclosed the value of the order, Xinhua said.
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