The Brazilian carrier is considering an order for COMAC aircraft
Autor: AvioRadar27. September 2024.
© COMACReuters reports that Brazil’s Total Linhas Aereas is considering an order for Chinese COMAC C919 aircraft. It would be a milestone for the Chinese manufacturer, marking the first order and eventual delivery of the aircraft outside of Asia.
According to sources, Total Linhas Aeras and COMAC have been negotiating for months, said the carrier’s representative Paulo Almada, who will visit COMAC in October to discuss a potential order of up to four C919s. This is somewhat surprising news, especially considering that Brazil is the home of Embraer and that the market is dominated by Boeing and Airbus aircraft. Nevertheless, Embraer has full production capacity until 2026, and the carrier is unsatisfied with the supply chain problems at Boeing and Airbus.
“The industry is dealing with supply chain issues, but COMAC told us they could deliver the aircraft by next March,” said Almada, who declined to share documents from the negotiations, citing a non-disclosure agreement, according to Reuters.
According to Airfleets, Total Linhas Aeras has five aircraft in its fleet, one ATR 42-500 and four Boeing 737-400. Any new aircraft order for such a carrier is news, and the order of an aircraft that flies outside of China only in Indonesia is a surprise. Namely, outside of China, COMAC sold its ARJ21 aircraft to the Indonesian carrier TransNusa, while GallopAir from Brunei ordered C919 and ARJ21.
In addition to the allegedly very short delivery time, the comparative advantage of COMAC is also the price. Unofficial data shows that the list price of the C919 is US$90 million, while the last known price of the Airbus A320neo is US$110.6 million, and the Boeing 737 MAX 8 is US$121.6 million. It should be noted that Airbus last publicly announced the list price in 2018 and that according to the estimates of the Statista portal, the price has grown by approximately 20% since then.
A potential issue in this order is the certification of the aircraft. Although EASA is in the certification process, Brazil’s civil aviation agency ANAC said the official request for C919 certification has not yet been submitted.
