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Commercial flights of the first regional jetliner will start to operate by the year 2015. The first two ARJ21-700 jets that will be used in the initial operations are now finished off the assembly line.
Chengdu Airlines Co Ltd. was contracted to manufacture the two dual-turbofan planes. The planes are now finished but still need a series of testings to earn airworthiness certification. It is expected to be delivered by the company by the end of next year.
According to a supervisor at Chengdu, only after the certification process is completed and the planes are delivered that the planes will be put into service sometime in the early part of 2015. Just like other bigger planes, the two jets have two-class configuration. Eight seats are designated for the business class section while 70 seats are designated for the economy class section.
It should be noted that four commercial ARJ21-700 jets have previously been assembled by Commercial Aircraft Corp of China Ltd. for testing. Extra three commercial airplanes are planned to be assembled by next year. Nonetheless, the aircraft has failed to get certification after five years of being operational and having made its first commercial flight.
The deputy director of the ARJ21-700 program, however, is very optimistic that the aircraft will be able to secure airworthiness certificate by next year. "We expect to get the airworthiness certificate from Chinese authorities in 2014," Zheng Wen has confirmed in an interview.
According to Zheng, the jetliner has already undergone and passed approximately 70 percent of the total required inspections and testings. So far, the four test aircraft have completed a total of 2,200 trial flights with a total of 4,200 hours. The process of certification also involves the participation of the United States Federal Aviation Administration. The aircraft has already completed and passed half of the required testings by the FAA.
