Recently Yahoo News on-line reported the following:
Europe regulator says will take time needed to approve
China jet
Thu, March 14, 2024 at 5:24 a.m. PDT
By Tim Hepher and Joanna Plucinska
COLOGNE (Reuters) - Europe's air safety regulator will take whatever time is needed to approve China's C919 passenger jet, its top official told Reuters, dampening Beijing's hopes of quickly breaking into a market marked by jet shortages and a Boeing safety crisis.
China is stepping up regulatory pressure to win foreign backing for its new jet, but industry sources have warned the landmark approvals from Western regulators could take years.
The COMAC C919 narrow body jet - designed to compete with best-selling models of dominant plane makers Airbus and Boeing - entered service in China last May after winning domestic safety certification in 2022.
Luc Tytgat, acting executive director of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), said COMAC had initially asked for European approval in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic stopped work. It re-launched the bid in November, requesting that the work be completed by 2026.
"Honestly I don't know if we will be able to do it yet: the plane is too new to us to know how easy or difficult it will be," he said in an interview at EASA's Cologne headquarters.
"Since 2019, things continued to be done in China so we now have to be briefed on the changes," he added.
The comments come weeks after China's state-owned plane maker flew the C919 at the Singapore Airshow as it promotes the jet as a new alternative at a time when Airbus waiting lists are full and Boeing faces production quality concerns over its 737 MAX.
To land significant export deals, COMAC needs to win widespread acceptance of its design from foreign regulators led by EASA and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.
Under an EU-China agreement signed in 2019, European regulators must decide whether to grant their own “validation” of China's certification of the jet to ensure any imports meet their own safety standards.
Without this approval, the C919 cannot fly in Europe.
"For us it will be a big work to reconnect and go for familiarization with what the plane looks like today," Tytgat said.
Tytgat's comments suggest EASA is at the "technical familiarization" stage, which experts say is the first part of a certification process that can last five years or more.
Western regulators have toughened certification of planes since fatal Boeing 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 exposed flaws in design and oversight. But the scrutiny is expected to be particularly intense for the first jet from a new manufacturer.
Irish budget carrier Ryanair has said in the past it would look at the Chinese jet.
However, so far no European airline has pressed EASA to speed up certification work so that it can place an order, Tytgat said.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) announced at a meeting in Beijing in January that it planned to promote the internationalization of the C919 in 2024.
According to official reports, CAAC will work this year towards obtaining European recognition for the plane. The regulator has not given details of the plan.
China's regulator and its plane maker did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Following its international air show debut in Singapore, COMAC took its planes on a promotional tour of east Asia, landing in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia and Indonesia where it met airline and government officials. The last stop is Malaysia where the planes arrived on Tuesday.
(Reporting by Tim Hepher, Joanna Plucinska, Additional reporting by Lisa Barrington; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)
Translation
科隆（路透社） - 歐洲航空安全監管機構高級官員告訴路透社，歐洲航空安全監管機構將視乎時間所需而要去批准中國C919 客機，這挫敗了北京方面迅速打入因飛機短缺和波音安全危機而出現的市場的希望。
中國正在加大監管壓力，為其新飛機贏得外國支持，但業內消息人士警告稱，西方監管機構的里程碑批准可能需要數年時間。
中國商飛 C919 窄體噴射機旨在與主要飛機製造商空中巴士和波音的最暢銷機型競爭，C919於 2022 年獲得中國安全認證後，去年 5 月在國內投入營運。
歐盟航空安全局 (EASA) 代理執行長 Luc Tytgat 表示，中國商飛最初於 2019 年在 COVID-19 大流行停止工作之前請求歐洲批准。 它於11月重新啟動進程，要求在2026年之前完成這項程序。
他在歐洲航空安全局科隆總部接受採訪時說:「老實說，我還不知道我們是否能夠做到這一點：這架飛機對我們來說太新了，不知道它有多容易或多困難」。
他補充說： “自 2019 年以來，在中國事情仍在繼續，所以我們現在必須了解這些變化。”
幾週前，中國國有飛機製造商在新加坡航展上試飛了C919，在空中巴士的候補名單已滿、波音公司面臨對其737 MAX 生產品質的擔憂之際，該公司將這款飛機作為一種新的替代品進行宣傳。
為了獲得重大出口交易，中國商飛需要贏得以歐洲航空安全局和美國聯邦航空管理局為首的外國監管機構對其設計的廣泛認可。
根據2019年簽署的歐盟-中國協議，歐洲監管機構必須決定是否對中國的飛機認證進行自己的“驗證”，以確保任何進口飛機符合其自身的安全標準。
如果沒有獲得批准，C919 就無法在歐洲飛行。
Tytgat說： “對我們來說，重新接觸並熟悉飛機今天的樣子將是一項艱鉅的工作。”
Tytgat 的評論表明，EASA 正處於「技術熟悉」階段，專家表示，這是可持續五年或更長時間的認證過程的第一部分。
自 2018 年和 2019 年波音 737 MAX 致命墜機事件暴露設計和監督缺陷以來，西方監管機構加強了對飛機的認證。 對新製造商的第一架噴射機的審查預計將特別嚴格。
愛爾蘭廉價航空公司 Ryanair 過去曾表示會考慮這架中國飛機。
然而，Tytgat表示，到目前為止，還沒有歐洲航空公司敦促歐洲航空安全局加快認證工作，以便能夠下訂單。
中國民用航空局（CAAC）1月在北京召開的會議上宣布，計劃於2024年推動C919的國際化。
根據官方報道，中國民航今年將努力爭取該飛機獲得歐洲認可。 監管機構尚未透露該計劃的細節。
中國監管機構及其飛機製造商沒有立即回應置評請求。
在新加坡國際航展上首次亮相後，中國商飛帶同飛機進行了東亞宣傳之旅，降落在越南、寮國、柬埔寨、馬來西亞和印尼，並會見了航空公司和政府官員。 最後一站是馬來西亞，飛機於週二抵達。
So, the COMAC C919 narrow body
jet, that is designed to compete with best-selling models of dominant plane
makers Airbus and Boeing, has entered service in China last May. Recently the
plane makes its international air show debut in Singapore, and a promotional
tour of east Asia. Europe's air safety regulator now says that it will take
time to approve China's C919 passenger jet, dampening Beijing's hope in getting
a quick entry into the world market to compete with Airbus and Boeing.
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