Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has terminated their M100 Spacejet regional jet development. On Tuesday the manufacturer released a statement stating that they will end the program. The Spacejet started in 2008 as a clean slate design aimed at competing in the 70 to 100 seat regional jet market. The initial design was not within the United States regional jet scope clauses. As a result, Mitsubishi redeveloped the design to be scope clause compliant reducing both the weight and number of seats.
Lack of orders
It has been reported that there have been approximately 400 initial orders, however many of them were canceled. All Nippon Airways was expected to be the launch customer. Many US regional airlines showed initial interest with Mesa Airlines and SkyWest placing orders upwards of 100 aircraft in 2017 valued in excess of 4 billion dollars. Trans States Airlines also placed initial orders with 50 firm orders. These orders were terminated as the aircraft was not within the union scope clause requirements. Japan Airlines was the only remaining order for the aircraft.
Program troubles
The initial testing of the aircraft was completed in Japan. The development program saw many delays and initial rollout dates being pushed back. Additional prototypes were flown to Moses Lake in Washington state to speed up the FAA certification process. This however did not speed up the project as the aircraft was well behind its anticipated delivery dates. During the coronavirus pandemic the Mitsubishi Spacejet program was shut down temporarily.
Other competing aircraft
With Mitsubishi’s termination of the M100 Spacejet, it leaves the market open to only a handful of manufacturers. Embraer produces the E175, E190-E2 and E195-E2 regional jets holding between 80 to 130 passengers. Airbus manufacturers the A220-100 seating around 100 to 135 passengers. To a lesser extent Sukhoi competes in this market with the SSJ-100 Superjet which has seen various orders from Russia and even Mexico. The termination of the jet demonstrates the difficulty of starting a clean slate aircraft design in the competitive market.
The M100 Spacejet provided a promising outlook in the contested regional aircraft market. With many airlines across the globe retiring smaller outdated 50 seat aircraft such as the CRJ-200 and ERJ-145 regional jets. The M100 Spacejet had the potential to have been a viable replacement had the program been continued without difficulty.