BEIJING, May 7 (Reuters) - China's COMAC is expanding

production facilities for its homegrown C919 jets in Shanghai,

according to one of the project contractors, as the state-owned

planemaker ramps up manufacturing to fulfill hundreds of new

orders.

China Aviation Planning and Design Institute (Group) Co.

Ltd. (AVIC-CAPDI), a state-owned provider of aviation planning

and construction services, said on its WeChat account at the end

of April that the company had "recently won the bid for the

second phase of the C919 large passenger aircraft batch

production capacity construction project".

AVIC-APC said the project was in Pudong, Shanghai, and had a

total construction area of 330,000 square meters. COMAC is

headquartered in Shanghai.

"The completion of the project will meet the future batch

production needs of the C919 large passenger aircraft,

effectively improving its production efficiency and providing

strong support for the commercial operation and market

competition of domestically produced big aircraft," it said.

The second phase of the project, according to AVIC-CAPDI,

mainly includes the construction of assembly plant, parts

warehouse, and tarmac area.

It was not immediately clear what the first phase of the

project is.

AVIC-CAPDI's statement was widely reported by local media on

Monday but was deleted by the company on Tuesday. AVIC-CAPDI and

COMAC did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The factory expansion comes as Air China and

China Southern Airlines, two of the country's

largest carriers, placed orders amounting to 100 C919 jets each,

expanding commercial operations of the plane amid ambitions by

Beijing to take market share from industry leaders Airbus

and Boeing ( BA ).

The C919 has so far gained more than 1,000 orders, but

mostly from Chinese airlines and aircraft lessors including

China Eastern Airlines, the maiden user of the jet,

which currently operates five C919 on three domestic routes.

Last year, government-backed media The Paper said China

expected to reach annual production capacity of 150 C919s in

five years.

China has said it wants to secure broader international

recognition for the C919 this year, including pursuing European

Union Aviation Safety Agency certification, and has been

marketing the jet in South East Asia.