Ryanair Trumpets Planes From China
China’s bid to convince airlines it can make jetliners as safe as Boeing Co. and Airbus aircraft is getting a big rhetorical boost from Ryanair Holdings PLC Chief Executive Michael O’Leary. Mr. O’Leary, whose Dublin-based budget carrier Ryanair describes itself as Europe’s biggest by passenger numbers, is staking an early negotiating position for his next aircraft purchase by trumpeting the “game changer” potential of Shanghai-based Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China Ltd., or Comac, as a third competitor. “You could not fail to be impressed by the resources they are putting into” the program, the 50-year-old Irishman said in an interview Tuesday, shortly after a one-day visit with senior Comac management during which he toured their Shanghai facilities.
The government-run Comac program represents a technological ambition for China, which in recent years has become the biggest maker and market for increasingly sophisticated products such as cars and bullet trains. China’s emergence as a competitive producer of commercial aircraft could disrupt one of the largest export-oriented industries for both the U.S. and European Union. First, Comac needs to overcome skepticism about airworthiness. Comac’s featured plane is the C919, a single-aisle aircraft expected to begin test flights in 2014, with the first deliveries two years later. The C919 is pitted against Boeing’s 737 and the Airbus A320. Aircraft Value News recently forecast the C919’s price tag around $32 million, which editor Paul Leighton said is a “speculative” figure based on the U.S. trade publication’s calculation that the A320neo will list for $46 million in 2016.
Boeing and Airbus, a unit of European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co., didn’t respond to requests to comment. Comac, which also didn’t respond to a request to comment, has said almost 200 C919 jets have been ordered, primarily from domestic airlines and financing firms. Last November, General Electric Co., which has deals to supply the C919 program with avionics and engines, placed an order through its aviation-leasing business for as many as 10 of the planes.