On February 7, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) officially announced the discontinuation of development of the Mitsubishi Space Jet, a domestically produced jet airliner, in its fiscal 2022 third quarter financial results.
At the October 30, 2020 financial results press conference, the company expressed that it would “temporarily halt” the development of the SpaceJet and drastically cut the planned allocation of funds from 370 billion yen for FY 2018-2020 to 20 billion yen for FY 2021-2023 (see related article, “MHI to ‘temporarily halt’ SpaceJet development. SpaceJet” development “will come to a standstill. (Related article: “Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to ‘Halt’ SpaceJet Development, Cut Funds Allocation Plan from ‘370 Billion Yen’ to ’20 Billion Yen'”).
The company cited the following reasons for the discontinuation of development: the prolonged development process created a technological review, the need to address decarbonization, the difficulty in securing cooperation from overseas partners, and the lack of business prospects due to the huge amount of funds required to obtain type certificates (TC). In addition, North American scoping closures (labor agreements between airlines and pilots. The company also cites the fact that the current aircraft (Space Jet M90) is not suitable for the market due to the lack of progress in relaxing the scope-closure agreement (an agreement between airlines and pilots in North America that limits the total weight and number of seats in regional aircraft so that the job opportunities of pilots of major airlines will not be violated).
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