Airbus, Boeing, China’s Comac at Singapore Airshow!
Bangkok, Feb 20 (EFE).-
Airbus, Boeing and China’s homegrown airliner Comac are competing for customers at the Singapore Airshow, Asia’s largest, which kicked off on Tuesday.
More than 1,000 companies are participating in the event, which will conclude on Sunday and is expected to be attended by around 50,000 people in the first edition in six years without Covid-19 restrictions.
“The buzz and energy around this year’s Airshow is reflective of the strong global rebound of the aviation and aerospace industries,” Singapore’s Coordinating Minister for Economic Policies, Heng Swee Keat, said at the opening ceremony, broadcast on social media.
The C919 narrow-body passenger aircraft, manufactured by the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac) made an exhibition flight at a preview for the air show on Sunday, the first time it was presented outside China.
The C919, which began flying last year with the Chinese company, China Eastern Airlines, and has the capacity to accommodate between 158 and 192 passengers, aims to compete with the Airbus 320 and the Boeing 737.
On Tuesday, China’s Tibet Airlines finalized an order with Comac for 40 C919 passenger jets and 10 smaller ARJ21 passenger aircraft with between 78 and 90 seats.
Comac delivered the first C919 to China Eastern Airlines in December 2020 and the plane made its first commercial flight in May last year, between Shanghai and Beijing.
Boeing will also showcase its B-52 Stratofortress bomber in Singapore while Airbus will exhibit its A350-1000 aircraft.
Other leading aerospace and defense companies, including UK’s AE Systems and Rolls-Royce, Bombardier from Canada, Lockheed Martin from the US, and France’s Thales, are also taking part in the event, among others.
The Singapore Airshow will also have a section dedicated to innovation and sustainability in which 41 start-ups from 41 countries, including Australia, Slovakia, Spain, the United States, the Netherlands and India, will participate.
The airshow, which takes place every two years, was held in 2020 with low participation due to the Covid-19 pandemic and in 2022 without any public days. EFE
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