China's new jet will seek share of world's largest aircraft market

BEIJING (April 26): China is set to become the world’s largest market for aircraft and the nation’s first domestically developed large jet is getting ready seeking a share of that business.

The country will need 6,810 aircraft valued at more than US$1 trillion ($1.4 trillion) in the two decades through 2035, Boeing Co. predicted in September. That would make China the biggest single-country market for planes, and the third-largest as a region, behind Europe and North America.

State-backed Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China Ltd. is poised to conduct the first flight of the locally built C919 before the end of May, according to two people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public. The test flight is delayed by more than a year.

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