Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp is to push back the delivery of the first Japanese-made passenger jet by a year, the fourth time it has delayed bringing the Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ) to market.
ANA Holdings Inc, the parent company of All Nippon Airways Co (ANA), had been expecting the plane in the second quarter of 2017, but the schedule has been pushed back “approximately one year,” Mitsubishi Aircraft said yesterday in a statement released in Nagoya.
The company has identified “several issues” that need addressing, the statement said, without specifying them.
“While this latest delay is very disappointing, we remain confident of the benefits the MRJ will bring to the ANA fleet,” Japan’s largest airline said in an e-mailed statement.
“In the meantime, we have sufficient aircraft capacity to meet demand and implement our network plans until the extended delivery date,” the statement added.
Mitsubishi Aircraft plans to strengthen the plane’s frame and upgrade its software, senior executive vice president Nobuo Kishi told reporters in Nagoya after the statement was released.
The Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd subsidiary started conducting test flights last month as it pushes ahead with developing Japan’s first new passenger plane in more than 50 years, and its first-ever passenger jet.
The Japanese company competes with Brazil’s Embraer SA and Canada’s Bombardier Inc in the market for planes with fewer than 100 seats.
Mitsubishi Aircraft had turned to bullet-train specialists to see the plane completed on time, but was still unable to stick to its schedule. News of the delay comes a day after Honda Motor Co’s aircraft unit said it had begun deliveries of the HondaJet, a seven-seat business plane it has described as a “flying sports car.”
Masao Ueno, a director at consulting firm AlixPartners, said the renewed delay could have a big impact on MRJ sales.
“ANA needs to take the first aircraft as soon as possible, but they also want to make sure the quality is 100 percent,” Ueno said by telephone from Tokyo before the Mitsubishi Aircraft briefing.
“Japanese companies are serious about quality and so the MRJ is being delayed to make sure it’s 100 percent ready,” he said.
Mitsubishi Aircraft has received 407 orders, including options and purchase rights, for its two types of planes, which seat from 78 to 92 passengers. In addition to ANA, customers include SkyWest Inc and Trans States Airlines Inc.
SkyWest, which has ordered 100 MRJs, is the biggest customer for the plane.
In an e-mailed statement, spokeswoman Marissa Snow said SkyWest’s orders “remain unchanged, and are dependent on flying contracts, scope and aircraft availability.”
The MRJ is to use a geared turbofan engine built by United Technologies Corp’s Pratt & Whitney unit, which is expected to make the jets at least 20 percent more fuel efficient than similar planes, the company says.
Mitsubishi Aircraft estimates the cost of developing the MRJ at about ￥180 billion (US$1.5 billion). The 92-seat MRJ90 has a list price of US$47.3 million.
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