GUANGZHOU, July 15 (Xinhua) -- China Southern Airlines, the country's largest air carrier, officially put into commercial operation a domestically developed ARJ21 aircraft on Wednesday, according to the airline.
The ARJ21 aircraft began its first commercial flight on a regional air route linking Guangzhou and Jieyang, both cities in south China's Guangdong Province, said the airline.
According to the airline's fleet development plan, it expects to have 35 ARJ21 aircraft by 2024.
Developed by the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC), the ARJ21 is China's first turbo-fan regional passenger jetliner model. It is designed with 78 to 90 seats and has a range of 3,700 km. It can fly in alpine and plateau regions and is adaptive to various airport conditions.
As a pioneer of Chinese commercial airplanes, the ARJ21 aircraft was put into commercial service in June 2016.
China Southern received its first ARJ21 aircraft on June 28, 2020.
The airline subsequently conducted emergency drills, flight training, personnel training and other related procedures to ensure the safe operation of the new aircraft in the fleet, according to the airline.
Guangzhou-headquartered China Southern is the largest air carrier in Asia, with a fleet of more than 860 airplanes by the end of 2019. Enditem
