First flight of China's ARJ21-700 has been delayed, possibly by as much as three months.
The ARJ21-700 had its roll-out in December as scheduled and was due to have its first test flight in March but a spokesman in Shanghai for the aircraft maker, China Aviation Industry Corp. 1 Commercial Aircraft (ACAC), told me yesterday that "it will not happen in March".
He was unable to provide a new date and said they were aiming to have the first flight sometime before July.
If the aircraft ends up being delayed by three months it could have a major impact on the aircraft's customers.
ACAC has been aiming for the aircraft to receive Chinese certification in September 2009 but a three-month delay would make it hard for the aircraft's launch customer Shandong Airlines to receive its first aircraft before the end of 2009 as planned.
It also makes it hard for ACAC to fulfill Shenzhen Airlines' request that its regional airline joint venture in China, Kunpeng Airlines, start receiving ARJ21s in 2009.
At last December's roll-out ceremony Shenzhen Airlines made a commitment for 100 ARJ21-700s - a firm order for 50 ARJ21-700s with options for 50 more.
A senior ACAC official told me at the roll-out event in Shanghai that fulfilling the order would be challenging because Shenzhen Airlines had told ACAC it wants first deliveries for Kunpeng Airlines set for 2009 rather than 2010.
While the delay in the ARJ21 programme will make it hard for ACAC to meet customer expectations, the delay comes as no surprise to me personally.
At the roll-out ceremony I had an opportunity to look at the aircraft close-up and could see that there was still a lot of work that needed to be done on the aircraft.
For example, I could see that there parts of the landing gear that still had to be attached to the aircraft.
And no one at the ceremony was permitted to look inside the aircraft which can only lead one to assume that some of the equipment inside the cockpit had yet to be fitted.
The ARJ21-700 had its roll-out in December as scheduled and was due to have its first test flight in March but a spokesman in Shanghai for the aircraft maker, China Aviation Industry Corp. 1 Commercial Aircraft (ACAC), told me yesterday that "it will not happen in March".
He was unable to provide a new date and said they were aiming to have the first flight sometime before July.
If the aircraft ends up being delayed by three months it could have a major impact on the aircraft's customers.
ACAC has been aiming for the aircraft to receive Chinese certification in September 2009 but a three-month delay would make it hard for the aircraft's launch customer Shandong Airlines to receive its first aircraft before the end of 2009 as planned.
It also makes it hard for ACAC to fulfill Shenzhen Airlines' request that its regional airline joint venture in China, Kunpeng Airlines, start receiving ARJ21s in 2009.
At last December's roll-out ceremony Shenzhen Airlines made a commitment for 100 ARJ21-700s - a firm order for 50 ARJ21-700s with options for 50 more.
A senior ACAC official told me at the roll-out event in Shanghai that fulfilling the order would be challenging because Shenzhen Airlines had told ACAC it wants first deliveries for Kunpeng Airlines set for 2009 rather than 2010.
While the delay in the ARJ21 programme will make it hard for ACAC to meet customer expectations, the delay comes as no surprise to me personally.
At the roll-out ceremony I had an opportunity to look at the aircraft close-up and could see that there was still a lot of work that needed to be done on the aircraft.
For example, I could see that there parts of the landing gear that still had to be attached to the aircraft.
And no one at the ceremony was permitted to look inside the aircraft which can only lead one to assume that some of the equipment inside the cockpit had yet to be fitted.
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