China’s first key overseas jet customer goes with Airbus initially

A new budget carrier meant to be the first international customer for China’s homegrown passenger jet is going with Airbus SE for its first plane, the carrier’s website shows.

Indonesian low-cost carrier PT TransNusa Aviation Mandiri may eventually have as many as six Airbus jets in its fleet, with a second due to arrive next month, a person familiar with the matter said, declining to be identified because the information is private. 

China Aircraft Leasing Group Holdings Ltd.—a shareholder of TransNusa—said in January last year that it would provide the Indonesian carrier with 30 of state-backed planemaker Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China Ltd.’s ARJ21 single-aisle jets, making the Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara-based airline the first outside China to fly the company’s planes.

TransNusa Vice Chairman Leo Budiman said in an interview last year that the airline was hoping to start receiving deliveries of ARJ21 jets as early as 2022. Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China is more commonly known as Comac.

Representatives for TransNusa didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

That TransNusa has gone with Airbus for its first jet and not Comac is another setback for the Chinese jet manufacturer with ambitions to take on the duopoly enjoyed by Airbus and Boeing Co. Although Comac is an integral part of the country’s “Made in China 2025” program to reduce its reliance on critical technology imports—everything from semiconductors to satellites—by 2025, its progress has been patchy.

It has yet to make any real headway outside China despite targeting other parts of the developing world, including signing a memorandum of understanding in 2018 to provide regional jets in Africa.

TransNusa received its first A320neo in December, according to online database Planespotters.net. It has been conducting training flights in preparation to start passenger services around the middle of this year, the person said.

TransNusa is still committed to operating Comac ARJ21 jets once they start to arrive, the person said. However, the pandemic has disrupted preparation and training for its staff and engineers on the ARJ21, they added.

China Aircraft Leasing Group ordered 60 ARJ21 jets in 2016 in a deal said to be valued at the time at around $2.3 billion based on list prices.