Comac secured firm commitments for 23 of its in-development C919 narrowbodies from two Chinese lessors on the first day of Airshow China.
CITIC Financial Leasing signed with the Chinese airframer for 18 C919s, with a letter of intent for an additional 18 aircraft.
SPDB Financial Leasing also signed a purchase agreement for five C919s, with a letter of intent for 15 more of the type.
Tianjin-based CITIC says it will “actively participate” in the development of the C919 and also work together with Comac on marketing the aircraft outside of China.
These two lessors' commitments bring Comac’s order book for the C919 to 570 aircraft from 23 customers, most of which are Chinese airlines and leasing companies.
Comac is officially working toward a year-end first flight for the C919, but FlightGlobal understands that this is likely to be pushed back to the first half of 2017.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
