By Lisa Barrington
SEOUL (Reuters) -Chinese planemaker COMAC said on Thursday it has opened an office in Hong Kong - its second outside mainland China this week - and has signed a deal to support flight operations there as it tries to break into the global passenger jet market.
COMAC's two commercial passenger planes are, with the exception of one Indonesian airline, all flown within China. The state-owned company wants to expand abroad at a time when Airbus and Boeing (NYSE:BA) are struggling to make planes fast enough to meet demand.
The launch of the Hong Kong Office follows the opening of COMAC's Asia-Pacific office in Singapore on Monday and the company quoted Li Ling, COMAC deputy general manager, as saying the Hong Kong office was an important step in the planemaker's international strategy.
Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China with its own civil aviation regulator. No COMAC planes currently fly to the city or have been ordered by Hong Kong-based airlines, although two C919 demonstration flights flew there over the past year.
Hong Kong's airport authority has agreed to support international flight operations for COMAC's C919 narrow-body passenger plane.
COMAC also agreed on Wednesday to expand existing business ties with Hong Kong-based aircraft maintenance group HAECO to collaborate on airframe, engine and component services for COMAC's domestic and international customers.
HAECO is owned by Hong Kong conglomerate Swire Pacific (OTC:SWRAY), the biggest shareholder in Cathay Pacific Airways (OTC:CPCAY).
COMAC has stepped up plans for production and sales of the C919, which competes with Boeing's 737 MAX and Airbus' A320neo jet families. It also has plans for larger, wide-body designs.
Industry sources say COMAC is a long way from making inroads internationally, especially without benchmark certifications from the European Union, which it is pursuing for the C919, or from the United States.
COMAC opened a U.S. office in 2010 and a Paris office in 2011 during earlier pushes for international certification and cooperation. Their current status is unclear.