Inaugural flight of MRJ sees Mitsubishi eyeing European market

After the postponement from June this year, Mitsubishi Aircraft has confirmed the time for the new maiden flight as between October 26th and 30th, the exact date being released one day in advance of the actual flight. A subsidiary of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Aircraft have designed the Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ) with between 70 and 90 seats (the MRJ70 and MRJ90 respectively) to take on the market chiefly covered by Bombardier and Embraer.
“We believe in the European market, we are carefully marketing the plane,” Yoshihisa Kumagai, president of Mitsubishi Aircraft Europe stated, also saying “We hope the first flight will lead to a lot of requests from Europe.”
After the United States, Europe is the second-largest market for the smaller commercial jet carrying up to 100 passengers. Mitsubishi Aircraft will be targeting those operators who are due to replace older fleets, often comprising turboprop aircraft or Avro jets, with more up-to-date and cost-efficient models. As an example, on Tuesday of this week Irish regional carrier Cityjet announced a USD$1 billion deal for the Russian-made Sukhoi Superjets to replace its fleet of Avro RJ85 jets. Currently there are 223 firm orders for the MRJ70 and MRJ90 (book price US$34 million and US$42 million respectively) – the largest customer being SkyWest Inc. in the USA with 100 firm orders for the MRJ90 and options for a further 100 aircraft.
Mitsubishi Aircraft announced its plans for the MRJ at the 47th Paris Airshow in 2007, this being the first Japanese plane to enter into production since the loss-making NAMC YS-11 back in the 1960s.