Indonesian carrier launches China's C909 jet on Shanghai route

A regular flight between Shanghai and Indonesia's Manado was launched by Indonesia's TransNusa Airlines on Wednesday, becoming the only direct flight connecting the two destinations.

The Shanghai-Manado flight is scheduled to operate every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

The new route marks a milestone for China's regional aircraft C909, which will conduct the more than 3,300-kilometer-long flight, with a 30-minute technical stopover at Clark International Airport in the Philippines for refueling.

Departing Manado's Sam Ratulangi International Airport on Wednesday afternoon, the flight arrived at the Shanghai Pudong International Airport late on Wednesday, and returned from Shanghai to Manado the next day (local time).

The launch of the new flight would further verify the economy, adaptability and reliability of the C909 aircraft in international operation, the Shanghai-based newspaper Jiefang Daily reported, citing unidentified personnel from TransNusa Airlines.

TransNusa Airlines is the first overseas customer of China's home-grown aircraft C909 developed and manufactured by Commercial Aircraft Corp of China (COMAC).

Formerly known as ARJ21, its original name was Advanced Regional Jet for the 21st Century.

Since its maiden commercial flight on June 28, 2016, the C909 series has delivered 160 aircraft as of the end of January. A total of 644 flight routes home and abroad have been operated, and 580,000 hours of safe flights were conducted, transporting more than 19 million passenger trips (19.88 million passenger trips), according to COMAC.