Photo/Illutration The SpaceJet takes off from Nagoya Airport in a test flight on March 18, 2020. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

After years of missed deadlines, production setbacks and ballooning costs, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. (MHI) will terminate development of Japan’s first passenger jet and withdraw from the aircraft business, sources said.

The company had suspended development of the commercial aircraft, SpaceJet, in autumn 2020 after failing for the sixth time to deliver its first jet to an airline company.

MHI appears to have concluded that the aircraft, previously known as Mitsubishi Regional Jet, is no longer expected to be profitable.

The company started the SpaceJet project in 2008 and received support from the industry ministry. The first delivery of the jet, to All Nippon Airways Co., was scheduled for 2013.

In 2009, however, MHI postponed the delivery due to a design change.

Since then, it had repeatedly pushed back the delivery date due to inadequate inspection systems and delays in aircraft tests.

The end of the project appeared inevitable in October 2020, when the company suspended development of SpaceJet.

“We will stop for a while,” Seiji Izumisawa, president of MHI, said.

The company said it would continue with procedures to obtain a “type certificate” required to operate commercial aircraft. The certificate confirms that the aircraft in question is in legal compliance with airworthiness requirements.

However, MHI slashed its development budget from 100 billion yen ($756 million) annually to 20 billion yen over three years. It also shed employees at its subsidiary, Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp.

(This article was written by Shimpei Doi and Ayumi Sugiyama.)

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