China Eastern Airlines (CEA) carried out a 100-hour verification flight for its first C919 aircraft on Monday to verify and confirm the aircraft's operation safety, paving the way for its commercial debut in spring of 2023.

Though the C919 was already granted initial approval from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), the CEA will still carry out verification flights without passengers to confirm operational safety, maintenance reliability and the various operational support capabilities of this new model.

The first C919 aircraft took off under the flight number MU7801 at 13:25 Beijing Time (0525 GMT) from Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport. The jetliner has to land in Beijing, Chengdu, Xi'an, Haikou, Qingdao, Wuhan, Nanchang and Jinan before returning to where it took off.

This routine will repeat itself every day of the test flight, along with the entire maintenance and boarding processes.

The CEA said it has selected 24 pilots with rich experience and superb skills as the first batch of C919 pilots.

After the tests, the airline company will apply to the CAAC for the Operation Specifications to obtain the final approval for the commercial operation of the C919 aircraft.

The CEA said the C919 is expected to operate on routes to many Chinese cities including Shanghai, Beijing, Xi'an, Kunming, Guangzhou, Chengdu and Shenzhen.

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The CEA signed a contract to buy five C919 in March 2021 in the first commercial deal for the plane. 

The airline officially received its first C919 jet numbered B-919A on December 9. The remaining four aircraft will be delivered in succession in the next two years based on the supplier's production and delivery plan, according to Wang Jian, the board secretary of the CEA. 

The C919 is China's first domestically-built large passenger aircraft developed by the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China. It was granted a certificate of airworthiness by the CAAC in late September.