China Eastern Airlines (CEA) announced that Friday would mark the inauguration of the fourth commercial scheduled route for its C919 aircraft, connecting Shanghai and Guangzhou.

Commencing on Friday, flight MU5309 is set to embark from Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport at 9:30 a.m., with a projected arrival at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport at 11:55 a.m. Subsequently, the return journey, flight MU5316, is slated to depart Guangzhou at 1:30 p.m., aiming to touch down in Shanghai by 4:00 p.m.

At present, CEA is the sole carrier operating the domestically manufactured large aircraft C919, with its fleet now comprising 6 units. Notably, the airline's flight capacity on the Shanghai-Guangzhou route has surged to 36 daily flights, showing robust connectivity between the two major cities.

The sixth C919 jetliner joined the CEA fleet last month, indicating the acceleration of commercial operation of China's homegrown large passenger aircraft. This came one year after the first C919 commercial flight was made. With its self-developed trunk jetliner, China aims to secure a share of the global civil aviation market currently dominated by Boeing and Airbus.

Over the past year of commercial operation, the C919 aircraft has been operating on three routes from Shanghai: from Hongqiao International Airport to Chengdu Tianfu International Airport in Sichuan Province, from Hongqiao to Beijing Daxing International Airport and from Hongqiao to Xi'an Xianyang International Airport in Shaanxi Province.

Read more: China's C919 serves first overseas commercial chartered flight