Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has paused its regional jet development program, citing weak market conditions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Japanese corporation had hoped to emerge as the primary competitor to Embraer in the regional jet industry with development of its two SpaceJet aircraft.
In a revised three-year business plan unveiled last Friday, Mitsubishi said that it would allocate just 200 million Japanese yen, or approximately $1.9 million, to the SpaceJet program over the next three years, down from the 3.7 billion yen ($35 million) it allocated to the program in a three-year business plan published in 2018.
The company said that it will continue only with certification efforts for the 90-seat SpaceJet M90 aircraft. Mitsubishi added that it plans to eventually assess the possibility of a program restart.
Mitsubishi had been working on two regional jets, the SpaceJet M90, and the 76-seat SpaceJet M100. The Covid-19 crisis caused the company to pause the M100 program in the spring. The M100 was much earlier in the development process than the M90, having been launched in 2019 specifically to service the U.S. regional jet market.
Among the carriers that have ordered SpaceJet aircraft is SkyWest, which had planned to purchase 100 of the planes, and Mesa, which planned to buy 50.