Civil Aviation Administration proposes to recognize China's airworthiness certification standards

China's COMAC aircraft. (Photo: Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam)

On March 13, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam said: Regarding the licensing of operations in Vietnam of COMAC aircraft manufactured in China, from January 15 to 24, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam worked directly with the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) and the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) to survey and learn about the overview of techniques, operations, maintenance, and design standards, manufacturing, testing, and certification procedures for the ARJ21-700 (C909) aircraft.

No serious accidents after 550,000 flight hours

After the process of researching, comparing and contrasting the standards, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam has sent a preliminary report to the Ministry of Construction.

The report said that COMAC is currently producing the ARJ21-700 (C909) aircraft. This aircraft has been granted a Type Certificate and a Production Certificate by the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

As of January 7, 2025, COMAC has delivered 160 C909 aircraft to 12 airlines (including 11 Chinese airlines and 1 Indonesian airline from 2022).

The total accumulated flight hours of C909 is more than 550,000 flight hours with more than 330,000 takeoffs and landings and the total number of passengers transported is more than 19 million passengers.

Airlines operating the C909 aircraft include Chinese companies (Chengdu Airlines 30 aircraft, China Southern 33 aircraft, Air China 33 aircraft, China Eastern 26 aircraft, China Express 11 aircraft, Genghis Khan Airlines 7 aircraft, COMAC Express 6 aircraft, Jiangxi Air 5 aircraft, China Flight General Aviation 2 aircraft, YTO Cargo 1 aircraft, Longhao Airlines 1 aircraft) and Indonesia's TransNusa (3 aircraft).

“Regarding China's safety regulations system (CAAC Regulations), the parts are set up similarly to the parts of the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA),” the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam emphasized.

According to COMAC's report data, there have been no accidents or serious incidents with the C909 aircraft since it entered service.

“In 2024, the average daily flight time of the C909 aircraft will be around 5.2 hours (block time) with dispatch reliability of around more than 99%.

Also in 2024, the C909 fleet flew about 194,000 hours with more than 135,000 sorties, of which 509 interruptions included 131 flights canceled for mechanical reasons.

The rate of technical disruptions is 3.77 per 1,000 flights, and the cancellation rate is 0.97 per 1,000 flights,” the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam said in a report to the Ministry of Construction.

Proposal to adjust regulations to operate COMAC aircraft in Vietnam

With the collected results compared with CAAC standards with FAA and EASA of the US and Europe, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam proposed to recognize Chinese design and manufacturing standards as the basis for facilitating civil aviation activities in the context of aircraft shortage.

Through the process of studying the CAAC's aircraft certification system and through the collected document systems, the Civil Aviation Authority assessed that China's airworthiness standards only have some minor differences related to the use of Chinese in aircraft labels.

The aviation authority believes that the proposal to recognize China's design and manufacturing standards is the basis for facilitating civil aviation activities in the context of aircraft shortages and difficulties in expanding the fleet and flight routes. At the same time, it creates new space and development momentum for the Vietnamese aviation industry.

In addition, strengthening cooperation with CAAC and Comac aims to help the Civil Aviation Authority establish and enhance its capacity in the field of supervision, approval of aircraft designs, manufacture and maintenance of aircraft airworthiness.

To put COMAC aircraft into operation, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam proposed to amend a number of articles of the Decree regulating conditional business lines and occupations in the field of civil aviation and a number of articles of the Circular on the Civil Aviation Safety Regulations in the field of aircraft and aircraft operations in the direction of recognizing China's airworthiness certification standards as the basis for importing aircraft into Vietnam.

According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam, after ensuring legal regulations on recognition of airworthiness certification standards, the Authority will carry out the process of recognizing the Type Certificate (TC) for COMAC aircraft.

According to data from the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam: Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) is a state-owned company of the People's Republic of China established on May 11, 2008, headquartered in Shanghai with a total of more than 21,000 employees including 6 main centers related to research, development, flight testing, customer service, training and over 10 other operating units in China and abroad.

As of January 7, 2025, COMAC has delivered 160 C909 aircraft to the market. Airlines operating C909 aircraft include: China (Chengdu Airlines 30 aircraft, China Southern 33 aircraft, Air China 33 aircraft, China Eastern 26 aircraft, China Express 11 aircraft, Genghis Khan Airlines 7 aircraft, COMAC Express 6 aircraft, Jiangxi Air 5 aircraft, China Flight General Aviation 2 aircraft, YTO Cargo 1 aircraft, Longhao Airlines 1 aircraft) and Indonesia (TransNusa 3 aircraft).

Source: https://nhandan.vn/cuc-hang-khong-viet-nam-de-xuat-cong-nhan-tieu-chuan-chung-nhan-du-dieu-kien-bay-cua-trung-quoc-post864937.html