On April 18th, the Comac ARJ21 aircraft (PK-TJA, MSN186) made its international commercial service debut, as it was flown by Indonesian low-cost carrier TransNusa on the Jakarta-Bali Denpasar route.

According to the flight tracking site, the aircraft operated the 8B5111 flight from Bali to Jakarta and the 8B5112 return service.

Comac ARJ21 International Debut

Chinese media outlet Ecns.cn has released a photo of passengers and staff standing in front of the Comac ARJ21 aircraft at Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport. Neither TransNusa nor Comac has released an official statement regarding the flight.

According to reports on Chinese social media, the aircraft is believed to have undergone 100 hours of verification checks in Indonesia.

Comac delivered the ARJ21 aircraft to TransNusa in December 2022. With 95 seats in an all-economy configuration, the interior and exterior of the jet were customized based on TransNusa's requirements.

Comac has previously announced that the aircraft was delivered under the auspices of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

Fleet Data

According to Cirium fleets data, the ARJ21 aircraft operated by TransNusa is leased from China Aircraft Leasing (CALC).

In 2019, CALC and TransNusa entered into a cooperation agreement, and in January 2021, CALC ordered 30 ARJ21s from TransNusa, reported FlightGlobal.

Hong Kong stock exchange filings indicate that CALC has a stake in TransNusa through its 72.28% stake in Aviation Synergy (Cayman), which in turn holds a 49% stake in TransNusa through Naga Pacific Holdings.

CALC CEO Mike Poon holds 14.1% of Aviation Synergy, while deputy chief Winnie Liu holds 13.1%. No official statement has been issued by either Comac or TransNusa regarding the flight of the ARJ21 on the Jakarta-Bali route.