Airbus’ Commercial CEO Christian Scherer has told a pre-Farnborough briefing in London that he is beginning to see Chinees aircraft manufacturer COMAC as a serious competitor.
While Mr Scherer noted that COMAC has made some inroads in the market, particularly in China and surrounding regions, but has not introduced any revolutionary or differentiated products compared to Airbus’s offerings, that is changing.
He said the C919 is similar to Airbus’s A320neo, but it lacks new value or differentiation in the market.
Mr Scherer said “It’s not when, or if, they’re a competitor so far; they’re very much influential in the PRC and perhaps in the surrounding areas and countries. COMAC has brought an aircraft to market: it sells. In very, very small quantities, but that’s where you start. But COMAC hasn’t really brought anything new, of differentiating substance, to the market, compared to the reference product that I would say is the Airbus A320/321 or from what Airbus was 50 years ago. There’s significant sustained demand not only in China for the cake to be split up between all the contenders. Trying to develop a technological sovereignty here in Europe, Airbus didn’t imitate a product already in the market; it brought something new, and that accelerated our market penetration. COMAC’s latest product he C919 is effectively an A320neo. It has the same technological features as the European aircraft, rather than anything revolutionary. There’s no differentiation; there’s no new value being brought to the market.”
Boeing’s former CEO Stan Deal said at Paris Air Show last year that COMAC would not be a viable competitor for at least the next 10 years.
