(Adds comments on engines for COMAC C919 jets)
By Brenda Goh
ZHUHAI, China, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Engine maker CFM International, a joint venture between the aerospace arm of General Electric and a unit of French firm Safran , said on Tuesday it signed 2,195 orders worth $28 billion in the first nine months of 2016.
By number of orders, that was already ahead of the 2,154 orders it received through the whole of 2015, CFM said.
Speaking at the Airshow China expo in the southern city of Zhuhai, CFM's Chief Executive Jean-Paul Ebanga said China accounted for 30-35 percent of the firm's annual demand.
CFM supplies Leap-1C engines for the early stages of production of state-owned plane maker Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China's (COMAC) long-awaited C919 passenger jet. The C919 is China's would-be challenger to dominant plane makers Airbus Group and Boeing Co in the lucrative narrow-body jet market.
Much speculation has centred on when COMAC will conduct the C919's maiden test flight after a series of production delays pushed it back for years. COMAC said earlier on Tuesday at the Zhuhai airshow that the first test flight may take place later this year or early 2017.
Speaking at the airshow, CFM's Executive Vice President Allen Paxson said, "The first flight is in the next weeks and months away."
Paxson said that while CFM is signed up to be a supplier for the C919 in early stages, beyond that supply contracts are somewhat open to competition.
"We're really planning on production indefinitely for the (C919) engine, (but) we recognise that there is a desire for a domestic engine in the future," Paxson said.
China launched state-owned Aero Engine Corporation (AECC) in August to signal its desire to develop home-grown engines that it will be able to use in its domestically built aircraft and eventually export.
CFM is now expected to deliver the second engine set for the C919 in mid-December.
(Reporting by Brenda Goh; Writing by Adam Jourdan; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)