It has been some time coming, but with orders cancelled and no further traction in the market, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is cancelling its Spacejet programme.
Farwell Spacejet – Image, MHI.
The Spacejet was meant to be a 70 to 90-seater regional jet, with the M90 and M100 (and previously, M70)
In a statement, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said:
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries announces the discontinuation of SpaceJet development activities, which had been pursued by Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation, a consolidated MHI Group company.
Moreover, this decision will have no material impact on MHI’s financial results, both consolidated and non-consolidated.
The investor’s statement adds
MHI to leverage knowledge and experience acquired through SpaceJet program to continue contributing to Japanese aviation industry, which aspires to return OEM aircraft manufacture to the country
And there are many reasons listed too, including:
- Decarbonisation solutions which at the time were not as a higher a priority as they are now.
- Product differentiation issues
- Little to no progress on the scope clause (conditions related to aircraft number and size included in airline-labour union agreements) relaxation resulted in M90’s not meeting North American RJ market needs – a key market for the type.
- Pilot shortages across the sector add to the uncertainty of Spacejet’s business viability.
- Further funding to meet type certificate – which needs the conditions above to allow it to progress
The MRJ/Spacejet programme started in 2008, with an order for 25 aircraft (15 firm, 10 optional) from All Nippon Airways, targeting a 2013 introduction. As you can guess, this didn’t happen. The first test flight occurred on 11 November 2015, with a total of 7 MRJ90 test aircraft and 1 MRJ70 test aircraft available to use for the programme.
The programme was rebranded from MRJ to Spacejet in 2019 as it attempted to target the US scope clauses – going so far as to design a new variant (the M100) to support this.
However, with cancellations and funding being slashed, the writing has long been on the wall for the Spacejet programme, with the manufacturer confirming to the Federal Aviation Administration that it does not plan to restart the development and production of the SpaceJet in October 2021.
That brings us to today, where the programme has been concluded and Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation is to be liquidated.
Next Steps
MHI still holds the rights to the CRJ family line (which it brought from Bombardier). It will continue to support this programme and learn from it – and ponder its next steps.
And the technology developed and acquired may help them as they work through future programmes.
With the regional aviation space changing a lot (with De Havilland, Embraer and ATR remaining as volume producers or supporting existing programmes and Bombardier exiting from commercial aircraft manufacturing), it seems that MHI could not overcome the US scope clauses that would have allowed it a chance to succeed in the USA – one of the biggest regional flight markets.
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A shame in a way, we need more competition in the aircraft market, but the realities of the US market (the pilot shortage as well as the scope clauses) and the likelihood of higher fuel prices sticking around make 70-90 seaters unrealistic. If there was demand at the higher end of that span, the E175-E2 is in testing already and it wouldn’t take that long for Airbus to develop a slightly shrunk version of the wildly popular A220-100.
Thrown in China pressuring its carriers to buy the ARJ21 and the market just isn’t there.
(And was I the only one who kept reading the name “Spicejet”?)