China, Malaysia back Malaysian airlines operating China-built aircraft

China and Malaysia issued a joint statement on Thursday and stated their support for Malaysian airlines to introduce and operate passenger aircraft developed by China, according to the statement.

The aircraft refers to China's domestically developed C909 regional aircraft and C919 single-aisle planes manufactured by Shanghai-based Commercial Aircraft Corp of China.

The C909 aircraft has been put into commercial operation by domestic airlines and overseas carriers in Indonesia, Vietnam and Laos. By the end of March, 162 C909 aircraft had been delivered to carriers, and the model accumulatively operated 645 routes and transported more than 20 million passenger trips, according to COMAC.

The C919 has been operated by multiple domestic carriers for commercial flights, and the aircraft model is accelerating its certification process in the overseas markets.