Chengdu Airlines is ready to launch its first ARJ21-700 commercial passenger service on Tuesday, June 28, seven months after taking delivery of the aircraft, the ARJ21 launch customer Monday announced in a press conference.

The Chengdu-based carrier said, the homegrown regional jet ARJ21-700 will take its first commercial flight from Chengdu to Shanghai Hongqiao on Tuesday morning.

The Chengdu-Shanghai Hongqiao service will be offered thrice weekly on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The inaugural flight EU6679 is scheduled to depart from Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport at 9:10 a.m. and land at Shanghai Hongqiao International Airportat 11:50 a.m.; with the return flight EU6680 leaving Shanghai at 1:10 p.m. and reach Chengdu at 4:25 p.m, according to VariFlight, China's leading flight status service provider.

The inaugural flight will be piloted by Deputy General Manager of Chengdu Airlines Zhang Fang, Deputy Chief Pilot Liu Bo, and Deputy Chief Security Officer Li JIanguo.

As the launch customer of the ARJ21, the Chengdu-based carrier received the first of 30 ARJ21-700 aircraft, Registration B-3321, from Commercial Aircraft Corp of China (COMAC) on November 29, 2015. The second ARJ21 is expected to be delivered to the airline in August.

Chengdu Airlines plans to fly first five ARJ21s on seven domestic routes from Chengdu to Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Xi'an, Nanjing and Guiyang, to ensure it can handle safe and reliable operations, as well as to build customer awareness of the indigenous aircraft.

The airline also predicted its fleet will be expanded to 52 aircraft by 2018, with annual passenger volume reaching 10.6 million.

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