Mitsubishi delays jet delivery by 2 years

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd will delay delivery of Japan's first domestically made passenger jet by two years as it revised some systems to help meet the latest requirements for certification.

The builder of the Mitsubishi Regional Jet, which was originally set for handover in 2013, "will adjust the first delivery" from mid-2018 to mid-2020, according to a statement in Tokyo from the owner of plane maker Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp on Monday.

It's the fifth delay announced by the company.

The MRJ, which is aiming to challenge Brazil's Embraer SA and Canada's Bombardier Inc in the market for aircraft with fewer than 100 seats, has flown three planes to the United States for testing, following setbacks last year. Development costs have roughly tripled from an original estimate of 180 billion yen ($1.6 billion) when the project was announced in 2008, according to Masanori Koguchi, chief financial officer at Mitsubishi.

Mitsubishi has 447 orders for the aircraft, including options and purchase rights. The prospective customers include US carrier SkyWest Inc, with an order for 200 planes including options, making it the biggest for the MRJ.

The Nagoya-based plane builder also has as many as 100 orders from Trans States Airlines Inc, also based in the US.

ANA Holdings Inc, the operator of Japan's biggest airline, is the first launch customer for the MRJ, with 25 on order, including options.

The jet, which can seat as many as 92 people, made its first flight in 2015 and won its first order from a European company in February.

Japan's last locally produced commercial aircraft was the YS-11, a turboprop made by Nihon Aircraft Manufacturing Corp, a consortium that included Mitsubishi, Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd and Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. Production was stopped in 1974 after 182 of the planes were sold.

Bloomberg