China eyes route for C919 into Southeast Asia, with landlocked Laos on the radar

China’s commercial aircraft have received interest from Laos, after Premier Li Qiang rolled his sleeves up to promote the symbol of advanced Chinese manufacturing and technology during his Southeast Asia tour.

In a joint communique with China’s Southeast Asian neighbour on Saturday, the countries agreed to strengthen cooperation under China’s Belt and Road Initiative and Laos’ strategy of going from “landlocked to land-linked”.

“China appreciates Laos’ interest in and intention to cooperate on Chinese commercial aircraft and welcomes Laos’ aviation enterprises to introduce these aircraft,” the communique said.

“China is also willing to further cooperate with Laos in technical support for Chinese commercial aircraft operations and customer service network.”

The communique, though, did not specify the narrowbody C919 passenger jet or the regional ARJ21, both of which are produced by the state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac).

Analysts said on Monday that Southeast Asian airlines would likely buy aircraft from Comac to elevate wider economic relations, with the region’s high number of budget airlines likely to opt for the C919 or ARJ21 if the price was right.