In a letter to the CEO of Ryanair, US Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi has warned the low-cost carrier against purchasing Chinese-made COMAC jets.
The influential Democrat politician wrote to Michael O’Leary over security concerns if Ryanair opted to purchase COMAC’s C919, according to Reuters.
“Respectfully, U.S. and European airlines should not be even contemplating the future purchase of airplanes from Chinese military companies,” wrote Krishnamoorthi in a letter seen by the news agency.
Krishnamoorthi, who is the Ranking Member of the Select Committee focused on the Chinese Communist Party, was prompted to contact O’Leary following recent comments by the Ryanair CEO.
In an interview with Skift in March 2025, O’Leary suggested that if the price was right then the carrier would buy the COMAC’s narrowbody aircraft.
“If it was cheap enough – 10 or 20% cheaper than an Airbus aircraft – then we’d order it,” said O’Leary.
The COMAC C919 was designed to compete with the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 and is proving to be a highly desirable aircraft with Chinese airlines.
However, currently the aircraft has only been certified by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has recently indicated that it will take three to six years to certify.
In his interview with Skift, O’Leary expressed confidence the C919 would eventually be certified by European regulators paving the way for Ryanair to operate the aircraft.
“I don’t care who makes them, whether it’s Boeing, Airbus or Comac. As long as the price is right, we’d buy it,” said O’Leary.
Krishnamoorthi’s reservations appear to stem from concerns over the close ties between COMAC and the Chinese military.
Update:
On May 1, 2025, O’Leary responded to Krishnamoorthi’s letter indicating he would look to purchase aircraft from other manufacturers, such as COMAC, if US tariffs increased the cost of Ryanair’s Boeing orders, according to Reuters.
“If the US government proceeds with its ill-judged plan to impose tariffs, and if these tariffs materially affect the price of Boeing aircraft exports to Europe, then we would certainly reassess both our current Boeing orders,” O’Leary wrote in a letter to Krishnamoorthi seen by the news agency.
According to ch-aviation, Ryanair is awaiting delivery of 29 Boeing 737 MAX 8 200s and 150 MAX 10s.
4 comments
Wow. Only thing that matters to O’Leary is price? Can careless about quality/safety of his company or passengers? Wish him all the best with those Chinese Aircraft! His passengers are going to love it! lol
Failed to add, where is it the US to tell a foreign company that has no service/connections to the US, on what to buy and not buy? Again wish him well and all the best!
A US politician dictates to a European company not to purchase from an Asian country.
Imagine if an Irish politicians tried to dictate to American Airlines not to buy from, say, an Indian company. What response would we expect?
The history of commercial airliners, and most every successful design were all from military aircraft manufacturers and military designs, and military funding.
I’m not making any distinction on safety and quality at this point, and while I believe Boeing and Airbus to be robust, and proven manufacturers, the recent “incidents & accidents” were from these manufacturers.
roughly 100% of the highly technical and critical system of the C919 are all from Western suppliers, so essentially the structural assembly and installation is what COMAC is doing, not unlike Airbus and Boeing.
In the case of the COMAC aircraft and the statement by Ryanair, it a totally financial statement, and completely reasonable business statement. Most likely it was not even all that serious or thought out beyond the point of firing a shot across the bow of Airbus and Boeing, and the cost of the products and related taxes and tariffs, period.
As to the safety, very few of the the major accidents or incidents are assembly or structural failure caused events, they are human error in control, software glitches or failures (Western equipment on the C919), or ATC and airport design issues. Lack of qualified or even staffed ATC, concrete walls in the runway safe zones, Near-Collisions (Near-miss?), and failure to follow standard procedures like altitudes and proximity between aircraft, doors falling off, pilots failure to shutdown a runaway trim (and the system was not even really trained, much less disclosed), etc.