Boeing and Airbus are to face a serious contender in the large passenger jet market after China and Russia agreed to develop a rival to the world’s biggest manufacturers of twin-aisle planes.
China’s Comac and the Russian aerospace company United Aircraft Corp (UAC) said on Monday they have agreed to jointly develop the jetliner with an intended range of some 12,000km – enough to make transatlantic crossings with ease or about the distance from London to Singapore. The aircraft will take on Airbus’ A330 and Boeing’s 777 among others in the market.
The joint venture China-Russia Commercial Aircraft International Company (Craic) will build the 280-seat plane.
The main responsibility of Craic is to develop a new generation long-range wide-body commercial aircraft and take charge of its commercial operation, according to UAC and Comac.
This month, Comac’s C919, China’s first modern passenger jet, made its maiden test flight from Shanghai.
“The long-range wide-body commercial aircraft is a major strategic and pragmatic cooperation between Chinese and Russian enterprises in the field of high-tech development,” the companies said in Shanghai.
So far, they have completed the industrial and commercial registration process with a business licence.
The establishment of Craic marks an important step forward, said the chairman of Comac, Jin Zhuanglong. “In accordance with international mainstream airworthiness standards, we will develop a competitive long-range wide-body commercial aircraft, provide a better service to the airlines and more contribution to the global aviation market,” he added.
The UAC president Yury Slyusar said: “We would like to develop the wide-body aircraft together, ensure the performance of manufacturing, operation, aftersale’s service, marketing and sales, etc.”
However, building and delivering a new jetliner from scratch is no easy matter as Japan’s Mitsubishi has found. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in January confirmed a two-year delay tfor its MRJ regional jet programme, the fifth time its schedule has been pushed back since launching in 2008.
The first MRJ90 is now targeted to be delivered to its launch customer All Nippon Airways in mid-2020, from a former goal of mid-2018.
As the Sino-Russian programme operator and main manufacturer, Craic is responsible for product and technology development, manufacturing, marketing, sales and customer service, consulting, programme management and other related fields.
The vice president of UAC, Vladislav Masalov, was on Monday appointed as Craic’s chairman while Comac nominated its assistant president Guo Bozhi as first general manager. The board of directors consists of four directors from both sides.
The new entity will implement research and development for the plane and its stretched and shortened versions, all of which Craic plans to be launch between 2025 and 2027, while final assembly will be completed in Shanghai, Mr Slyusar said in Shanghai on Monday.
The new plane will need “billions of US dollars” in investment, he said.
The companies will seek out an engine supplier for the programme and tenders will be sent by the end of the year and for components next year, said Mr Bozhi.
Cheaper costs will be one of the advantages of the new plane, Mr Guo said.
chnelson@thenational.ae
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Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
MATCH STATS
Wolves 0
Aston Villa 1 (El Ghazi 90 4' pen)
Red cards: Joao Moutinho (Wolves); Douglas Luiz (Aston Villa)
Man of the match: Emi Martinez (Aston Villa)
Who are the Sacklers?
The Sackler family is a transatlantic dynasty that owns Purdue Pharma, which manufactures and markets OxyContin, one of the drugs at the centre of America's opioids crisis. The family is well known for their generous philanthropy towards the world's top cultural institutions, including Guggenheim Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, Tate in Britain, Yale University and the Serpentine Gallery, to name a few. Two branches of the family control Purdue Pharma.
Isaac Sackler and Sophie Greenberg were Jewish immigrants who arrived in New York before the First World War. They had three sons. The first, Arthur, died before OxyContin was invented. The second, Mortimer, who died aged 93 in 2010, was a former chief executive of Purdue Pharma. The third, Raymond, died aged 97 in 2017 and was also a former chief executive of Purdue Pharma.
It was Arthur, a psychiatrist and pharmaceutical marketeer, who started the family business dynasty. He and his brothers bought a small company called Purdue Frederick; among their first products were laxatives and prescription earwax remover.
Arthur's branch of the family has not been involved in Purdue for many years and his daughter, Elizabeth, has spoken out against it, saying the company's role in America's drugs crisis is "morally abhorrent".
The lawsuits that were brought by the attorneys general of New York and Massachussetts named eight Sacklers. This includes Kathe, Mortimer, Richard, Jonathan and Ilene Sackler Lefcourt, who are all the children of either Mortimer or Raymond. Then there's Theresa Sackler, who is Mortimer senior's widow; Beverly, Raymond's widow; and David Sackler, Raymond's grandson.
Members of the Sackler family are rarely seen in public.
Frankenstein in Baghdad
Ahmed Saadawi
Penguin Press
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
The specs: 2019 BMW X4
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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The specs
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Engine: 5-litre V8
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Power: 520hp
Torque: 625Nm
Fuel economy, combined: 12.8L/100km
The biog
Title: General Practitioner with a speciality in cardiology
Previous jobs: Worked in well-known hospitals Jaslok and Breach Candy in Mumbai, India
Education: Medical degree from the Government Medical College in Nagpur
How it all began: opened his first clinic in Ajman in 1993
Family: a 90-year-old mother, wife and two daughters
Remembers a time when medicines from India were purchased per kilo
