Airbus, Boeing, or Beijing? Ryanair CEO Will Buy China's C919 'If It's Cheap Enough'

Could Ryanair do the unthinkable and buy Chinese-built planes? Speaking to Skift, Michael O’Leary, Ryanair Group CEO said he would happily order aircraft from China if the price was right.

“The Chinese are basically building a f**king A320. So if it was cheap enough – 10 or 20% cheaper than an Airbus aircraft – then we’d order it,” O’Leary said Thursday.

Chinese-built commercial jets are in their infancy, but many analysts expect the country to eventually emerge as a credible competitor to today’s Western-manufactured options.

Beijing’s highest hopes are for the C919 plane. This is produced by Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac), a state-owned firm founded in 2008 to develop passenger airliners. It is considered an emerging rival to Airbus’ A320 and the Boeing 737 programs.

While Comac’s first product, the ARJ21, has only chalked up around 130 deliveries to date, the C919 is proving to be much more popular. This new-generation model has won hundreds of orders from state-backed airlines, including Air China and China Southern. 

The plane made its first flight in 2017 after years of delays. At present, only the Civil Aviation Administration of China has certified