Aircraft lessor DAE sees China's COMAC breaking Airbus, Boeing duopoly

Chinese state-owned planemaker COMAC has the opportunity to break Airbus and Boeing's duopoly of the passenger jet market over the next decade, the chief of aircraft leasing company Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) told Reuters. Airbus and Boeing are the main suppliers of aircraft to airlines, but the European planemaker is struggling to boost production amid record orders and Boeing is under scrutiny from regulators after a mid-air panel blowout on a new plane in January. The narrow-body C919 jet, which is manufactured by the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) and is pitted against Airbus' A320 and Boeing's 737 MAX, is a "perfectly fine aircraft", Firoz Tarapore said in a recent interview. "Over the next decade COMAC has a unique opportunity to break this duopoly into a triopoly because on the one hand Airbus is sold out, and Boeing is having production problems," he said in Dubai this month. COMAC's planes fly almost exclusively within China and with one Indonesian airline. The planemaker is pursuing certification with Europe's aviation regulator for its C919 jet while also looking for international customers. Aviation industry sources, however, caution that COMAC is a long way from making inroads internationally, especially without benchmark certifications from the United States or European Union, or more efficient planes.<br/>