(Yicai Global) March 7 -- China's aviation administration will fully support the Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China (Comac) in its plans to deliver the C919 aircraft to customers for the first time in 2021.

Large-scale aircraft production will be important to the development of China's manufacturing industry and new economic growth, state-owned broadcaster CCTV quoted Li Jian, deputy director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, as saying.

The narrow-body twinjet C919 is Comac's first civil trunk aircraft built using its own patents. It took its maiden flight in May and will undergo intensive flight tests at several Chinese airports this year to obtain an airworthiness certificate from the CAAC by the end of 2020.

China penned an agreement with the United States last year under which aircraft deemed by China as airworthy will automatically be eligible to take to the skies in America. It is also in talks to sign a similar deal with the European Union.