The Commercial Aircraft Corp of China (COMAC) secured a contract to sell 20 C919 jets to BOC Aviation, the wholly-owned leasing unit of Bank of China (BOC). The latest order boosts the aircraft maker’s total orders for the 150-seat Chinese-made aircraft to 235. BOC Aviation owns 180 planes that are leased to major airlines globally. COMAC also signed a contract with Germany-based Liebherr Group and Chinese Landing Gear Advanced Manufacturing Corp to jointly develop landing gear for the C919.All 33 major systems providers will be signed up in the first half of the year. The company also expects to reach an agreement with Bombardier within two months on cooperation on the jet’s development, said Han Kecen, the Chinese aircraft company’s Vice President. COMAC’s only overseas customer so far is the leasing unit of General Electric Co. The company is also forming an avionics venture with COMAC’s parent, Aviation Industry Corp of China. COMAC hopes to have as many as 300 orders and commitments for the plane by the end of this year, Chief Designer Wu Guanghui said. The C919 is due to make its first flight in 2014 and to enter service two years later. The jet will be 20% lighter and 10% cheaper than existing aircraft of similar size, as it will be built with composite materials and aluminum-lithium alloys.

Spending on railway construction was 76% lower in January than a year earlier as funding shortages for the sector persisted. Only CNY8.73 billion was invested in expanding the network in January. That followed a 34.8% year-on-year drop in spending for the whole of last year, to CNY461 billion. Although the sector raised CNY270 billion through bank loans and bond sales in the fourth quarter of last year, this was not enough for work to start on a significant number of new rail projects. With 3,500 kilometers of new high-speed railways expected to be put into use this year, the length of China’s high-speed railway network will exceed 10,000 kilometers. Insiders said the construction of high-speed railways, which halted due to funding shortages, will resume this year. Yang Zhongmin, Director of the Planning Department of the Ministry of Railways (MOR), said that all four of the planned North-South rail arteries will be completed. One of the four arteries, the Beijing-Shanghai line, opened in June. The others will connect Beijing and Guangzhou in South China, Beijing and Harbin in Northeast China, and cities on the southeast coast with high-speed railways. Train travel from Beijing to Shenzhen will take eight hours instead of the current 24 hours, and trips from Beijing to Harbin will take only five hours instead of nine. MOR will also begin nine new railway projects this year, but none of them are high-speed railways.

Hong Kong Jet, a subsidiary of HNA Group, is enjoying unprecedented growth thanks to booming sales of private jets and privately-chartered flights in the region. Some 60 private jets were based at Hong Kong International Airport, up from just three in 1998. Hong Kong Jet has responded to the surge in demand by adding 10 aircraft to its fleet that 10 weeks ago numbered just one jet. The fleet is valued at USD420 million. Two of the 11 aircraft, a Gulfstream G550 and a Gulfstream G-IV, are owned by the company and are used for chartered flights. The G550 is an ultra-long-haul aircraft that can fly non-stop from Hong Kong to London or San Francisco. The remaining nine planes are owned by third parties and are operated by Hong Kong Jet under management contracts. Many Chinese private jet owners are first-time buyers and typically engage airline companies to operate the craft and undertake maintenance. Hong Kong Jet expects its fleet will grow to more than 15 by the end of the year, says Chief Executive Chris Buchholz. “Our cutting-edge advantage of having both a Hong Kong AOC [air operators certificate] and a mainland AOC offers customers great flexibility in operating aircraft under their preferred registration in various jurisdictions,” Buchholz said.

Cathay Pacific Airways saw record daily passenger volumes as holidaymakers travelled during the Lunar New Year holiday. Passenger numbers reached 97,000 on January 28 when most holidaymakers returned to Hong Kong. The airline normally carries about 80,000 passengers daily. Cathay has ordered more than 90 new aircraft with a total listed value of HKD190 billion. The airline expects to take delivery of all the planes by 2019, and it will phase out its entire fleet of Boeing 747s by 2017.

Hong Kong Airlines is preparing to launch its all-business-class service to London on March 7 after it took delivery of a specially configured Airbus A330-200. The new plane features 34 seats in a four-abreast arrangement that convert into lie-flat beds in Club Premium and 82 so-called cradle seats in a six-abreast configuration in Club Classic. That compares with around 253 seats in a traditional economy and business class layout. The aircraft is also equipped with in-flight wi-fi internet, sky bars and an audio-video-on-demand entertainment system. A month later Cathay Pacific Airways plans to introduce its first premium economy cabin in aircraft flying the London route. Meanwhile, Hong Kong Airlines has halted its Hong Kong-Moscow flights due to low passenger volumes. The Moscow service stopped on January 16, about 18 months after it was launched. The airline made no formal announcement about the ending of the Moscow service, which was launched in competition with Cathay Pacific’s service to the Russian capital. Aviation insiders said ending the Moscow flights could be a temporary measure for the winter, and that the airline could possibly revive the service in summer.