jhungary
MILITARY PROFESSIONAL
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As I said, this is a counter-flowing matrix, other countries would want a more accessible after-sale market to choose those aircraft, and you can't have a support base until you have make enough sales.I’d assume some level of subsidies will be necessary to build up domestic as well as foreign sales.
Perhaps, as in most countries, defense and freighter sales may help in this regard to some extend, but I concur, China will need sales in the thousands to be really competitive.
How much below B737 and A321 prices can they go to win over customers without becoming unprofitable or at least before becoming unsustainable?
Up to 500 planes between Iran and Russia is a good starting point for potential foreign sales.
Btw, how do the Russians keep their domestic aviation industry afloat?
The problem is not really how much lower you can go to undercut the competition, but rather, not counting China, if I already have a service center and has been using the established network between Airbus or Boeing or both, then I would have to undercut these advantage too before I can see how much I can save if I switch to C919. All those expense would have to be offset before any changes is deem profitable.
Think of it like a car, I don't know what's your criteria to buy a car, for me, If I were to choose between an existing brand, like Toyota or Honda or BMW or whatever existing brand, and a new brand (like grumpet, polestar or whatever) I will think about how much and how easy it would to fix it, because I don't want to pay an arm or a leg to fix that car, if there are a lot of similar car available, that will drive down the maintenance cost. it would be taking a big leap for me to jump into a new brand which I don't know how much to change an engine block, alternator or anything or service the car.
The only way that make sense is I want a car, but the brand I wanted is not available to buy, and then I will look at those new brand if I get desperate enough. Which is exactly what Boeing did when they suspended production of their MAX in 2019 and later recertification, the aviation world back then react to this news as if it will give AIrbus a major boost and C919 some minor boost, but neither had happened. Not only the Max sales did not drop but Airbus only pick up around 400 sales and C919 sales is still neglectable. Granted, the entire COVID saga happened between 2020-2021 give Boeing the restspite they need, but that did show how the world sees changes in avaiation even at a catatrophic event like this.
As for how Russia sustain their airliner market? Well, they didn't, that's why they also buy from Airbus and Boeing, now they may go with C919 but that's another story. The last major Russian Airliner is Tu-204/214 from early 1990s which is similar to Boeing 737-800/900 or Airbus A321, and I think Russia sold less than 100 of both version. If you compare it to 7000 737NG and aboutu 10,000 A320 family......