China Eastern Airlines has launched double COMAC C919 operations between Shanghai and Chengdu on August 4. It is the first time that two C919s have been operating on the same route.
China Eastern took delivery of the second C919 on July 16. The aircraft registered B-919C entered service on August 1 to join B-919A. This aircraft was delivered on December 8 but only entered service on May 28 after experiencing some technical issues. Since then, B-919A has done 31 flights and accumulated 919.2 hours, COMAC says.
On August 4, both aircraft operated on the Shanghai Hongqiao to Chengdu Tianfu route and flights MU9197/9198 and MU9189/9190. That day, B-919A did the former rotation and B-919C the latter. While COMAC says that the double rotations are flown on Friday, Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday, they didn’t show yesterday as B-919C was inactive during the weekend. Both aircraft were back in action again today.
China Eastern is expected to grow the fleet to C919s this year.
Active as a journalist since 1987, with a background in newspapers, magazines, and a regional news station, Richard has been covering commercial aviation on a freelance basis since late 2016.
In 2022, he has gone full-time freelance. Richard has been contributing to AirInsight since December 2018. He is also writing for Airliner World and Aviation News and until July 1 2023 in a part-time role with Dutch website and magazine Luchtvaartnieuws. Twitter: @rschuur_aero.
