China’s homegrown C919 jetliner completed its second international commercial flight on Thursday, landing in Mongolia’s capital, Ulaanbaatar, according to flight-tracking website Flightradar24.

Flightradar24 earlier reported that the Air China flight was en route from Beijing to Ulaanbaatar, having departed at 3:36pm local time (12:36pm PKT). Tracking data later showed that the flight landed at 5:17pm local time (2:17pm PKT), completing the journey in one hour and 41 minutes.

Flightradar24 noted that the C919 is scheduled to replace the 737 MAX on the route over the coming week.

The narrow-body Comac C919 completed its first scheduled international commercial passenger flight on Wednesday, marking a milestone for the aircraft following its maiden commercial flight on May 28, 2023, according to Chinese news agency Xinhua.

The flight from Beijing to Ulaanbaatar landed safely after one hour and 42 minutes and was welcomed with a water-salute ceremony at the airport.

“The operation of this flight on the China-Mongolia international route demonstrates that the C919 has successfully passed the verification of bilateral international civil aviation operating standards, thereby officially acquiring the qualification for regular international commercial passenger operations,” Xinhua reported.

It cited analysts as saying that the milestone flight marked a “starting point” for China’s domestically developed large passenger aircraft to gain global recognition.

Tian Linchuan, an assistant researcher at the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, said the ability to operate cross-border scheduled flights reliably demonstrated that “the C919 has reached the advanced level of its international counterparts in terms of safety, reliability and cost-effectiveness”, the agency reported.

According to Xinhua, the C919 is China’s first self-developed trunk jetliner in accordance with international airworthiness standards and registered with independent intellectual property rights.

It has already been successfully operating along multiple domestic routes since entering commercial service, gaining widespread market recognition due to its “reliable flight performance, comfortable cabin experience, and stable safety standards”, according to the agency.

Air China currently operates 12 of these aircraft, and the C919 jet is also operated by China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines, Xinhua added.

The Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, Ltd. (Comac), the developer of the jet, said that as of Aug 10 (Monday), the C919 had served 57 routes linking 25 cities and handled over 7.5 million passenger trips. The latest route between Beijing and Ulaanbaatar marks the 58th route and 26th linked city.

Science and Technology Daily said that the steadily rising production capacity of C919 planes also supports their operation in overseas markets. Comac has set a target of reaching an annual production capacity of 200 aircraft by 2029, according to Xinhua.