Airbus says competition from China’s Comac C919 is ‘not going to rock the boat’

China’s homegrown airliner may be the latest challenger to Airbus and Boeing’s passenger jets, but an executive from Airbus said he’s not worried. The Comac C919 is “not going to rock the boat in particular,” Christian Scherer, CEO of Airbus’s aircraft commercial business, said at a media roundtable on the sidelines of the Singapore Airshow. “It looks a bit like an Airbus narrow body,” Scherer said, tongue in cheek, noting that the C919 is “not very different” from what Airbus and Boeing already have in the market. Scherer acknowledged that the C919 was a “legitimate effort” by China — but “the market is large enough for competition, we welcome the competition.”<br/>“We don’t want to stick our head in the sand ... it’s a normal thing to see more competition,” Scherer added. Comac’s spokesperson did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment. Touted as a competitor to Boeing’s 737 and the Airbus 320, the Comac C919 is a narrow body jet developed by the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, or Comac. It was certified by the Civil Aviation Administration of China in September 2022 and entered commercial service with China Eastern Airlines in May last year.<br/>