China Aircraft Leasing Company (CALC) has inked a purchase agreement for 20 Comac C919s, bringing the Chinese manufacturer's total order backlog for the narrowbodies to 215.

This is the fourth major commitment for the aircraft since October and the aircraft lessor has become Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China's (Comac) 10th customer for the C919.

Neither CALC nor Comac revealed the financial details of the order which was signed in Hong Kong on 8 December.

C919 web
© Comac

At the signing ceremony, the manufacturer said that the preliminary design stage and the main technical work of the aircraft have been completed. This includes design for various sections of the aircraft such as the fuselage, tail and wings.

It has now entered into a crucial point in the detailed design phase, it added.

Prior to this order, China's Bank of Communications Financial Leasing had signed an order for 30 of the aircraft, Sichuan Airlines for 20 and ICBC Leasing for 45.

The C919 is scheduled for its first flight in 2014.

Source: Air Transport Intelligence news