China's Comac is serious competitor but must bring something new, Airbus says

Chinese plane maker's C919 narrow-body is an 'A320 Neo of sorts', Airbus chief says

Airbus Chief Commercial Officer Christian Scherer is interviewed by Reuters at the International Air Transport Association's Annual General Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts, US , October 4, 2021. ReutersShow less

China's plane maker Comac is a "serious competitor" to the industry's duopoly of Airbus and Boeing, but the state-owned company has yet to differentiate its narrow-body jets from the current offerings in the market, a senior Airbus executive said.

There is enough sustained demand for aircraft, particularly in China, to offer ample opportunities for all the plane makers currently operating in the market, Christian Scherer, Airbus's chief of the commercial planes unit, said in London on Sunday before the Farnborough airshow.

"We do take Comac as a serious competitor," Mr Scherer said. "It's not when or if. They are a competitor.

"So far they are very much influential in the PRC (People's Republic of China) and perhaps in surrounding areas or countries.

"There is significant sustained demand, not just in China, but in particular within China, for that cake to grow and to be split up and still offer vast opportunities to all contenders, Airbus included."

State-owned Comac also has succeeded in bringing its airplanes to market and they are flying, albeit at small volumes to start with, he said.

But the Shanghai-based company has yet to offer a product other than the narrow-body aircraft already available in the market, such as the Airbus A320 or A321 family of jets.

"Comac has not really brought anything new of differentiating substance to the market," Mr Scherer said, comparing the C919 narrow-body with its own existing single-aisle jets.

"When Airbus started with the same legitimacy of trying to establish technological sovereignty here in Europe for commercial aviation, Airbus did not imitate a product that was at that time delivered exclusively by the US.

"We brought something new to the market and that has helped us accelerate our market penetration."

Comac's C919 is "effectively an A320 Neo of sorts" with the same technological features and equipment, so there is "little differentiation".

"There is no new value being brought to the market, which tells you that Comac is really still trying to accede to a market that remains largely influenced by Airbus and Boeing," Mr Scherer said.

The industry is debating Comac's viability as a rival to the Boeing-Airbus duopoly as airlines are struggling to meet soaring travel demand amid supply chain problems that have constrained capacity.

Airline chiefs have expressed their frustration with jet delivery delays, parts shortages and engine production problems.

Comac is positioning the C919 as an alternative to the Airbus A320 Neo and Boeing's 737 Max as the two plane makers struggle to meet demand for new aircraft.

US maker Boeing is hobbled by regulatory and legal scrutiny as it struggles to overcome a safety and quality crisis.

Meanwhile, its European arch-rival Airbus had to revise its financial and production goals in June, partly because the plane maker is struggling to get its supply chain back on track after years of disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Airbus is delving deeper into the supply chain than ever before to stabilise its parts providers by posting its engineers at its suppliers, Mr Scherer said.

“We have invested a significant amount of resources – and I’m talking mainly about human resources – deep into the supply chain, far deeper and in far greater detail than we’ve ever done before,” he said.