State-owned China Eastern Airlines on Wednesday confirmed plans to launch a new regional subsidiary from Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport as part of a wider effort to promote China’s domestically developed regional and narrowbody jet programs. 

According to Comac, OTT Airlines will become the launch customer of China’s home-built C919 narrowbody passenger jet—a position originally designated to China Eastern. Additional plans call for the operation of a mixed fleet of ARJ21-700 regional jets serving destinations along the Yangtze River Delta—a triangle-shaped megalopolis that encompasses Shanghai municipality and the three neighboring provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui. Considered one of China’s crown jewels, the region ranks as the most densely populated and most affluent area in the country, accounting for a quarter of the nation’s gross domestic product. While officials declined to comment on a launch date, OTT Airlines plans to support both commercial and business aviation in the region.

The announcement comes as Comac presses ahead with efforts to maintain its C919 and ARJ21 test flight programs. According to the company, the sixth C919 prototype flew from its Shanghai production facility on Sunday and remained airborne for one hour and 59 minutes before landing at Shandong’s Dongying Shengli Airport. The ARJ21-700 also took to the skies for more testing this past weekend; aircraft 131 performed a three-hour, 39-minute initial production test flight from Shanghai Dachang Air Base while aircraft 103 completed a one hour and 43-minute flight test evaluation of its stall warning system from Shanghai Pudong International Airport.

Meanwhile, China Eastern and other Chinese-based airlines have begun restoring service to a number of destinations where they reduced capacity/frequencies or suspended flights due to the new coronavirus outbreak. China Eastern’s resumed batch of routes includes Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Xi'an, Nanjing, and other cities with large labor demand.