Mitsubishi to announce "pause" of their SpaceJet-programme

According to Japanese media, Mitsubishi is set to announce on 30 October that they will "pause" their SpaceJet-programme for an indefinite period of time. The manufacturer is taking this step as global aviation is facing big challenges due to the Corona-pandemic, impacting the need for new aircraft.

The SpaceJet-programme has always seen a lot of setbacks and is massively delayed as the original plan was to have a first aircraft delivered to a customer in 2013. The aircraft was launched as the MRJ90 and it flew for the first time on 11 November 2015.

However, the type has not attracted much interest from customers and the many delays have not helped.

In an attempt to revive the programme, Mitsubishi decided to rebrand the MRJ into the SpaceJet in 2019, featuring two versions, the 81-seat M90 (the original MRJ90) and the 76-seat M100. The latter version was especially designed for the US-market.

Despite the rebrand, Mitsubishi earlier this year also announced a change to the programme, focusing only on building the M90 and effectively stop the development of the M100. Now, it seems the whole project will be deferred for an unknown period.

At this moment, Mitsubishi officially has 217 firm orders for the SpaceJet, with US-carrier SkyWest being the largest customers with orders for 100 M90s.