Latest reports suggest that European regulators have wrapped up a months-long testing process for the China-made C919 passenger jet without finding any major problems in the hardware. The jet, which has already been in service domestically for over three years, may still need software tweaks based on collected data from these flight tests and other work before it is certified. The completion of in-flight testing is the third hurdle cleared by the Chinese airplane in a four-step certification process by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency. Florian Guillermet, the executive director of the agency, told the media last year that the jet is expected to get European certification within three to six years.
These reports come at a critical time for Western plane makers like The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) and Airbus. Boeing stock is down over 16% in the past six months as the company grapples with manufacturing and quality control issues, delayed certification for flagship programs, and a heavily leveraged balance sheet. Meanwhile, Airbus is constrained by problems with external suppliers as it ramps up production. The two firms hold a combined backlog of over 15,000 aircraft, representing a decade of sold-out production. COMAC, the state-run Chinese corporation that makes the C919, has signed deals with China Eastern Airlines and Air China for orders worth 100 planes each slated for delivery by 2030.
Compared to the heavy weights in commercial aviation, the Chinese disruptors seem rather small in scale. However, investors should carefully consider the impact that a new entrant will have on an aerospace market that is characterized by delivery delays and high costs of maintenance, repair, and overhaul services. The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) and Airbus have both sold more planes than they can currently build. As such, the competitive battleground in the sector has shifted from the sales office to the factory floor. Passenger travel hit a new record in 2025, according to a report on the aviation sector by professional services firm PwC, pushing commercial OEMs to target double-digit delivery increases in 2026.
The Fissures Within the Duopoly
The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA), once the gold standard of engineering, has suffered one of the most severe corporate and reputation crises in modern industrial history over the past few years. Following crashes of the Boeing 737 MAX 8 in 2018 and 2019, which resulted in the deaths of 346 people, the federal authorities revoked the authority of the firm to approve individual MAX planes in 2019. Production quality issues with the Boeing 787 airplanes in 2022 resulted in a similar action. Investigations revealed the 737 crashes were triggered by the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, software designed to prevent stalls, which erroneously forced the nose of the planes down based on data from a single faulty sensor.
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