China’s top civilian aircraft manufacturer is reassessing geopolitical risks to its supply chains – particularly for jet engines sourced from foreign firms – according to a source at the planemaker, as deliveries of its flagship C919 passenger jet appear to be late or delayed this year.

The Shanghai-based Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac) is facing external and internal constraints, including reliance on foreign suppliers for critical components and persistent manpower shortages, said the source, who added that other optimisations to design and production were already under way.

“Aircraft manufacturing has long and fiendishly complex supply chains … It involves a lot of planning and effort to add just one more jet to the delivery queue,” the person said on condition of anonymity, as the source was not authorised to speak to the media.

“Not a single link, a single piece in the supply chain can be missing. Similarly, not a single part of the hundreds of thousands of bolts, wires and systems that make up an airliner can be omitted, before we are satisfied with quality and safety so that a delivery can be made.”

Comac delivered only 15 units of the C919 – a single-aisle passenger jet intended to compete with the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 families – to customers in 2025, well short of its initial target of 75.

It aimed to produce about 28 units this year, the South China Morning Post reported in January, but only three were delivered in the first quarter, and two more have been made this month, according to the source and airline records checked by the SCMP.

Most of the components making up the jet’s airframe – including the nose, cockpit, wings, fuselage and tail – are sourced domestically, as efforts to expand localisation continue. But core systems, including the engine and avionics, still come from Western suppliers.

Management initially thought increasing deliveries [of the C919] would be easy … Now we all know it was way too optimistic

Anonymous source, Comac

That dependence has exposed Comac to risks. Last summer, the administration of US President Donald Trump temporarily suspended exports to China of Leap-1C engines, the turbofan power plants which power the C919. They are produced by CFM International, a consortium formed by US-based GE Aerospace and the French company Safran Aircraft Engines.

Delivery setbacks have prompted a reassessment at Comac, with the firm seeking more “trustworthy” suppliers, the person said.

“Comac’s management initially thought increasing deliveries [of the C919] would be easy, once promising the central authorities that annual deliveries may be boosted to 200 within five to seven years to make up half of China’s annual demand of 400 new jets,” the source said.

“Now we all know it was way too optimistic.”

The Shanghai-based planemaker is also understaffed, the person said, which has had a significant effect on some major production departments and led to the deployment of new technologies such as 3D printing.

“If we can source more from domestic partners rather than from abroad, shipment can be shortened with more stable, controllable supplies,” the source added. “Of course, we must not compromise on quality.”

As part of those efforts, the Aero Engine Corporation of China (AECC) has stepped up the development of an indigenous jet engine, the CJ-1000A. Beijing’s 15th five-year plan, which guides socio-economic development from 2026 to 2030, noted that certification and deployment of the engine would be accelerated.

At a forum held last week in Suzhou, an industrial hub in eastern China’s Jiangsu province, AECC representatives indicated in their presentations that certification of the engine was nearing the “home stretch”, without providing a specific timetable.