Mr. Ho Minh Tan, Deputy Director of the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam, signed a document to the Ministry of Construction expressing his opinion on the use of Comac aircraft.
The Vietnam Aviation Administration said that the unit received Official Letter No. 3991/BXD-VT & ATTTT requesting the Vietnam Aviation Administration to study the opinion of Mr. Tran Dinh Thang, Member of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front (Course 8, 9, 10) to the Prime Minister on the use of the manufacturer of Comac manufacturer, Vietnam Aviation Administration has researched and responded to each opinion of Mr. Tran Dinh Thang.
Some notable contents are as follows:
Regarding the opinion: "In the aviation industry, the criteria of "safe" are given top priority. When talking about safety criteria, it depends on the number of flights & flight times of an airline.
For example, the A320 aircraft line, born from 1988 to 2024, has 172 million flights & 319 million flight hours, the number of fatal air accidents is 29.
Russia produced the Sukhoi aircraft, and had an accident while flying a test in Indonesia in 2012, after which the company abandoned the project.
Comacs are not yet certified by FAA & EASA and flight hours start at 0, so the safety risk of Comac aircraft is high".
Responding to this opinion, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam said that the Authority clearly recognizes the importance of exploitation experience for flight safety.
Although the Comac ARJ21-700 is a relatively new aircraft line, as of January 7, 2025, Comac has provided 160 C909 aircraft to 12 airlines.
The total flight time of the C909 is more than 550 flight hours with more than 330 safe take-offs and landings with a total of more than 19 million passengers.
The two Vietjet leased aircraft alone have accumulated flight hours of more than 5,429 hours (MSN 185) and more than 2,895 hours (MSN 196) for safe operation as of May 22, 2025.
This aircraft has been operated by 12 Chinese airlines, 1 Indonesian airline (before being operated by 1 Lao airline and Vietjet Air Vietnam in April 2025).
"Comparing Comacs to traditional aircraft is not correlated. Current data shows that Comac fully meets the criteria for safe operation. Safety supervision is carried out continuously and closely by the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam and the Civil Aviation Authority of China to ensure compliance with all safety regulations," the Civil Aviation Authority emphasized.
Regarding opinions: "Vietnam's airline is diverse in supply sources, in addition to the two main companies, Boeing (US) & Airbus ( Europe), there are Embraer (Brazil) & Bombardier ( Canada). Both Embraer & Bombardier companies are FAA & EASA certified and have quite a large number of flight hours".
The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam said that Embraer and Bombardier are reputable manufacturers, with FAA/EASA TC, suitable for international exploitation.
However, in the current market context, these aircraft are in short supply of regional jets, while domestic demand is increasing.
Comac uses more than 86% of components from American and European manufacturers such as GE, Rockwell Collins, Liebherr... to ensure equivalent hardware quality.
Comac aircraft has a competitive price and a configuration suitable for Vietnam's short- and medium-sized exploitation conditions. Vietnam continues to maintain its strategy of diversifying the fleet with aircraft types from many prestigious manufacturers in the world (Boeing, Airbus).
The implementation of Comac in domestic operation is a cautious, step by step step step, to further assess the potential and compatible capability of this aircraft line in Vietnam's operational conditions.
The Ministry of Construction and the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam always put flight safety criteria first, considering this a vital factor for the development of the national aviation and tourism industry.
All decisions related to aircraft operations are carefully considered on the basis of science, technology and law to ensure absolute safety for passengers and aviation operations.
Regarding the opinion: "Aeropic accidents are unfortunate, but once they happen, the impact of which can blow away the country's tourism & economy, as in the case of Malaysia & Korea, which had previous air accidents".
Regarding this opinion, the Civil Aviation Authority said that air crashes may affect the national image, but the cause is often not only due to the design of the aircraft (for the above cases that occur with aircraft certified by FAA and EASA) but also from exploitation, maintenance and operation supervision.
To date, ARJ21 has not recorded any serious accidents in more than half a million flight hours related to the design or operating and maintenance conditions of the aircraft.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam conducts safety supervision according to ICAO standards, grants recognition of flight eligibility certificates, certificates of foreign aircraft operators and coordinates with the Civil Aviation Authority of China in ensuring aviation safety.
Through responding to some opinions, the Civil Aviation Authority affirmed that the operation of the Comac ARJ21-700 aircraft is in accordance with current legal regulations of Vietnam.
