Boeing, Airbus woes a ‘golden opportunity’ for Chinese manufacturer Comac

Delays in aircraft delivery by both Boeing and Airbus have created a golden opportunity for Chinese manufacturer Comac, says Emirates president Tim Clark.

Boeing’s factory floor in Renton where narrow-body aircraft like the 737 Max 8 are produced.

Aircraft delivery delays by both Boeing and Airbus have created a “golden opportunity” for the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, says Emirates president Tim Clark.

Speaking at the International Air Transport Association AGM in Dubai, Sir Tim took aim at Boeing in particular over blowouts in delivery times, as Emirates is still waiting for the delivery of 777-9s promised in 2019.

He said the long wait had forced the airline to refurbish older aircraft while it waited for new arrivals.

Other airlines were experiencing similar problems, including Virgin Australia which has been told to not expect six new Boeing 737 Max 8s until next year.

Sir Tim said Boeing was well aware of the frustrations being felt throughout the industry, and the delays were restricting growth and costing airlines like Emirates considerable money.

“Our business has had to take on a $3bn cash program to retrofit all of our aircraft because we are losing ground on product – that’s seats, that’s televisions,” he said.

“We need our aeroplanes, we cannot face constant delays, we’ve got a business to run and the bill for refurbishing all these aeroplanes should be put at Boeing’s door.”

As well as supply chain issues, Boeing’s delivery pipeline was being held up by quality assurance problems at the manufacturer following the door plug blowout on an Alaska Airlines’ Boeing 737 Max 9.

The cause was found to be missing bolts in the door plug, prompting a major overhaul of quality assurance on the Boeing shopfloor.

Emirates President Sir Tim Clark.

Sir Tim said the industry needed Boeing to survive and to continue to build aeroplanes, which were widely regarded as excellent aircraft.

Airlines were also experiencing delays in deliveries from Airbus, with Qantas informed the first new A350-1000s would not land until 2026, six months later than expected.

Sir Tim said the problems within Boeing and Airbus potentially created a “golden opportunity” for the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac).

“I think they’ve got some way to go,” said Sir Tim of the state-owned aerospace company.

“They have to get their aircraft on to the American (civil aviation) registers, the European register, but knowing the Chinese they’re probably going to be pretty versatile and fairly quick in upgrading their standards of build and safety and propulsion and all the avionics platforms that are currently provided by western technology but they’ll probably get there.”

IATA director general Willie Walsh said he had visited Comac and inspected its C919 aircraft which was in commercial service in China.

China’s Comac C919 is now flying on domestic routes in its homeland. Picture: AFP

“Orders for the aircraft are very significant but primarily targeting that domestic market and when you look at the size of that market there’s incredible scope for Comac to grow,” Mr Walsh said.

“Expecting Comac to challenge Boeing and Airbus outside of China, I think that’s going to take considerable time.”

He shared Sir Tim’s concerns about the aircraft delivery delay impacting the broader industry, even to the extent of passenger growth forecasts being curtailed.

Mr Walsh said it was frustrating for airlines which wanted to expand their networks and fly to new destinations only to be hamstrung by the lack of new aircraft.

“Some are bringing back into service aircraft they planned to retire (and) all of this is not helping journey to net zero carbon emissions,” Mr Walsh said.

“New fuel-efficient aircraft are critical to that journey and it’s causing a lot of frustration but there's nothing any individual can do. We just have to wait for (Boeing and Airbus) to sort out their issues.”

Sustainable aviation fuel was the industry’s big hope of helping to reduce emissions but production would have to increase by 1000 times to meet forecast demand in 2050.

Mr Walsh said it would potentially make air travel more expensive because airlines simply could not absorb the addition cost of net zero.

“I would love to think we as an industry could do it without support but our margins are wafer thin, and costs will increase as we transition to net zero and that will require customers to pay,” Mr Walsh said. “We can’t get away from that.”

Originally published as Boeing, Airbus woes a ‘golden opportunity’ for Chinese manufacturer Comac