Air China will start to add international flights from Sunday, while bookings ahead of May Day holiday have surged, but flights to US are having a sluggish recovery.

Report by US-China Economic and Security Review Commission finds the value of roughly 256 Chinese companies on US markets slid 17.5 per cent from 2022.

State-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China plans to expand the domestic aviation market by boosting production this year – a move buoyed by the post-Covid recovery in global aviation.

Juneyao Airlines took delivery of its newest 787 Dreamliner on Thursday, an indication that strained US-China trade relations may be easing and a potential precursor to the resumption of 737 Max deliveries.

China Eastern Airlines, the first commercial operator of the C919 narrowbody passenger jet, has flown 35,000 passengers on the model since its maiden flight in May.

Airlines in China and the US are preparing for an increase in their direct routings, but the likelihood of a rapid return to 2019 levels of service is vanishingly small.

A Brunei airline has committed to buying a batch of China’s domestically produced aircraft – another step forward in the planes’ path to global procurement.

Australia’s competition regulator may reject a Qantas-China Eastern Airlines tie-up amid mounting pressures on the Australian carrier on multiple fronts.

A new addition to the home-grown C919 narrowbody airliner series will add nearly 50 seats to the maximum capacity as Beijing keeps Boeing and Airbus in its long-term sights.

China’s top three state-owned airlines reported significantly narrower losses for the first half of 2023 as Beijing’s lifting of Covid-19 restrictions late last year unleashed pent-up demand for domestic travel.

China’s state-owned aerospace manufacturer aims to deliver up to eight of the home-grown C919 passenger jet this year, with the first recording a passenger seat occupancy rate of 82 per cent since its maiden flight in May.

China’s C919 narrowbody passenger jet went into commercial operation this year, but relies on imported parts and technology, especially from the US, with Washington wary of American-made civil aviation products being diverted for military use.

Unemployment among China’s youth rose above 20 per cent for the first time, while Hainan is readying for its first durian harvest this year and the C919 completed its first commercial flight in May.

From Shanghai to Beijing and back, the journeys will mark the culmination of 14 years of home-grown development in China’s bid to compete with Boeing and Airbus.

China Tourism Academy expects domestic tourists to take 4.55 billion trips this year, marking a huge increase from the zero-Covid ravaged 2022, but swelling household savings shows they may be more thrifty.

China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines said they will voluntarily delist ADRs from the NYSE, following the exits of five other Chinese state-owned enterprises in August.

The country’s first domestically made passenger jet will be fast-tracked to grab market share, vows Commercial Aviation Corporation of China, but Western restrictions on access to technology loom large.

Indonesia has become the first foreign market to accept delivery of China’s Comac ARJ21, which analysts expect will reach more markets in the future.

China Eastern Airlines is the first customer to receive the C919, a home-grown passenger jet that is designed to compete with Boeing’s 737 and Airbus’ A320.

China’s C919 home-grown passenger jet is expected to be delivered to China Eastern Airlines by the end this year before being put into commercial operation in the first half of 2023.

Boeing’s business has not been the same since the US-China trade war kicked off four years ago, but the company is looking decades down the line, and it expects the embattled 737 MAX to remain important.

China’s home-grown C919 narrow-body passenger jet has been certified to fly, state media confirmed on Friday, with President Xi Jinping urging the nation to “climb to the top of the world’s science and technology”.

Reports in China suggest the home-grown C919 narrow-body passenger jet, built to compete with Boeing’s 737 and Airbus’ A320, could be certified as early as Monday having been in development since 2008.

Since the start of the pandemic, combined losses at Air China, China Southern and China Eastern have reached US$18.5 billion.

The choice of Airbus over Boeing tips one of the most lucrative big-ticket deals in global commerce in Europe’s favour, taking it off the table as the US and China remain mired in trade disputes from the Trump era.

Cathay Pacific was among the earliest to ramp up flight frequency between Hong Kong and Shanghai this month.

China’s aviation regulator said in December that the 737 MAX was airworthy again, paving the way for commercial flights in the country to restart.