China's C919 jet makes first international commercial flight

BEIJING: China's homegrown C919 jet completed its first international commercial flight on Wednesday (Aug 12), a symbolic step towards Beijing's goal of challenging the decades-long aerospace dominance of Boeing and Airbus.The narrow-body jet has been billed as a potential competitor to Boeing's 737 or Airbus's A320, though the aircraft has yet to receive approval from American or European regulators.Beijing hopes the domestically produced plane will reduce China's reliance on foreign technology and help it gain a foothold in the global market.The C919 jet, produced by the state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) and operated by Air China, departed Beijing at 3.17pm on Wednesday. It landed in Mongolia's capital Ulaanbaatar at 4.58 pm, according to public flight data.Che