GUANGZHOU -- China Southern Airlines, the country's largest air carrier, officially put into commercial operation a domestically developed ARJ21 aircraft on Wednesday, according to the airline.

The ARJ21 aircraft began its first commercial flight on a regional air route linking Guangzhou and Jieyang, both cities in south China's Guangdong Province, said the airline.

According to the airline's fleet development plan, it expects to have 35 ARJ21 aircraft by 2024.

Developed by the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC), the ARJ21 is China's first turbo-fan regional passenger jetliner model. It is designed with 78 to 90 seats and has a range of 3,700 km. It can fly in alpine and plateau regions and is adaptive to various airport conditions.

As a pioneer of Chinese commercial airplanes, the ARJ21 aircraft was put into commercial service in June 2016.

China Southern received its first ARJ21 aircraft on June 28, 2020.

The airline subsequently conducted emergency drills, flight training, personnel training and other related procedures to ensure the safe operation of the new aircraft in the fleet, according to the airline.

Guangzhou-headquartered China Southern is the largest air carrier in Asia, with a fleet of more than 860 airplanes by the end of 2019. The airline said it plans to use ARJ21 airplanes on more regional routes, including those starting from Beijing in the future.

On June 28, the COMAC delivered the ARJ21 jetliners to the country's three major domestic carriers: Air China, China Eastern Airlines, and China Southern. These deliveries mark the arrival of the homegrown jetliner in the domestic mainstream civil aviation market.

To date, the COMAC has delivered a total of 33 ARJ21 airplanes to customers. These airplanes have served on more than 50 air routes and carried around 890,000 passengers.