China's homegrown C919 large passenger aircraft lands smoothly at Lanzhou Zhongchuan International Airport. [Provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The airline's Gansu subsidiary said the debut represents a major extension of the aircraft's domestic operational network into a key northwestern transport hub, with Lanzhou serving as an important gateway along the Silk Road. The expanded operations will also support the continued accumulation of high-altitude flight data, which is critical for ongoing performance optimization and future model enhancements.

"Lanzhou airport belongs to the general plateau airport category. The C919 requires no special maintenance preparations, only standard preflight checks and routine deicing procedures," said Zhen Kan, general manager of the Gansu branch of China Eastern Airlines Technic, in an interview with Lanzhou Daily.