China’s C909 jet gets international uplift with funding for adoptive airline

China’s leading planemaker is redoubling its efforts to boost the international profile of its home-grown jets in 2026, injecting a sizeable amount of capital into a subsidiary carrier as it attempts to widen its planes’ coverage area and attract more overseas buyers.The state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac), manufacturer of the C909 regional airliner and the company’s flagship narrowbody C919, recently infused 634 million yuan (US$91.76 million) into C909 launch customer Chengdu Airlines, in which the planemaker has a 48 per cent controlling stake.Combined with funding from other sources, the injection has nearly tripled Chengdu Airlines’ registered capital from 680 million yuan to 2 billion yuan, a move analysts viewed as laying the groundwork for more C909s to reach locales in Southeast Asia, Central Asia and Russia on commercial flights.As the carrier seeks new international routes – and Comac looks to gain whatever advantage it can in its quest to compete with Western giants Boeing and Airbus – the C909 could aid in both goals, having already been added to a number of international routes and the fleets of overseas carriers.The higher-profile C919, having only taken to the skies outside China as part of industry expos, has been exclusively operated by domestic airlines since its first commercial voyage in May 2023.Chengdu Airlines put out notices in recent months recruiting partners for new international routes using the C909, including service to Vladivostok and Khabarovsk in Russia and Osh in Kyrgyzstan.