The Chinese aircraft manufacturer Comac announced that the ARJ21 model has now exceeded the ten million passenger mark. The anniversary passenger was on board China Southern Flight CZ3892.

Along with the Comac C919, the ARJ21 is one of the People's Republic of China's two ambitious civil aircraft projects. Its similarity to McDonnell Douglas' MD80 series is no coincidence, as the MD-90 was once supposed to be manufactured under license. However, this no longer happened after Boeing took over MD.

The Chinese manufacturer used some components based on the license agreement and developed the ARJ21 on this basis. In a way, you can see this as a further development of the MD-80 series. However, there are enormous differences and it should be made clear at this point that it is not a “copy”, but rather that adopted components are properly licensed.

A total of 2016 ARJ177s have been delivered to customers since June 21. With a few exceptions, all operators are based in the People's Republic of China. According to Comac, the pattern is in use on more than 400 routes to 140 cities on around 1.800 flights per week.

There are now over ten million passengers on board an ARJ21. The anniversary passenger was traveling with China Southern Airlines on the Guangzhou-Jieyang route on November 24, 2023.