The maiden flight of China’s ARJ21-700 regional jet has been delayed by six months because some of the programme’s key suppliers need to complete equipment testing to meet the requirements of the aircraft’s maker AVIC 1 Commercial Aircraft (ACAC).
ACAC was originally planning to conduct the aircraft’s first flight in March but ACAC president, Luo Ronghuai, says in a statement: “We are disappointed with this delay and we expect to fly the ARJ21-700 in September or October."
ATI reported on 3 March there would be a delay in the programme but until this statement it was unclear what would be the new time-frame for the aircraft’s first flight.
Luo says “the delay of the planned first flight of the ARJ21-700 is due to the fact that [some of the] suppliers of key systems were not able to provide the necessary test conditions on time.”
A six-month delay means ACAC now only has 12 months to complete the Chinese certification process if it is to deliver its first aircraft at the end of 2009’s third quarter, as originally planned.
ACAC says it is now “making efforts to ensure on schedule delivery of key systems, including the advanced flight system”, is delivered in time “so as to be able to deliver the ARJ21-700 to airline customers in 2009”.
Shandong Airlines, which has 10 ARJ21-700s on firm order, is to be the first airline to operate the ARJ21-700. Shenzhen Airlines’ Kunpeng Airlines is hoping to start operating the aircraft in 2009, and ACAC also has orders from Shanghai Airlines and Shenzhen Financial Leasing.
Other customers include GE Commercial Aviation Services (GECAS), which has signed a memorandum of understanding for five, and Xingfu Airlines which on 28 March signed a letter-of-intent for 10.
Xingfu Airlines is a new airline joint venture between China Aviation Industry (AVIC) 1 and China Eastern Airlines, and is starting up in western China’s Xian city with Xian Aircraft MA60s, but plans to later add ARJ21-700s.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
