U.S. Carrier Eastern Air Lines Cancels order for 40 Mitsubishi MRJs

Mitsubishi Aircraft has confirmed that an order for 40 of its MRJ90 (Mitsubishi Regional Aircraft) jets has been canceled by U.S. carrier Eastern Air Lines. The order was originally placed back in July 2014.
In 2017 Eastern Air Lines was acquired by rival carrier Swift Air (not to be confused with Spain’s Swiftair), with its name, assets and associated trademarks being retained by Swift Air. In September last year Eastern Air Lines surrendered its operating certificate to the FAA as, according to Swift Air, its acquisition was “not a purchase of one certificate or a merger of two certificates.”
The MRJ has been plagued with delays, with the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ offshoot having been forced to push delivery schedules back five times. Original delivery for these 40 jets was set for the beginning of 2019, but two postponements had left this somewhat up in the air.
Orders for approximately 450 of the MRJs have been received by the manufacturer, and it has commented that this cancelation “will not affect” other deliveries. However, Mitsubishi will likely be anxious that no other cancelations follow, such as the 100 MR90 jets on order from fellow U.S carrier Sky West, which has an option on a further 100 of the aircraft. In May 2017 Iran canceled plans to buy a number of MRJs from Mitsubishi owing to a believed combination of the company’s inability to set a delivery timeline and a lack of testing that had taken place.
In what is becoming an increasingly competitive marketplace for this size of aircraft – 70-90 passengers – Mitsubishi may be losing ground while Embraer, Brazil’s market leader in this space, is in tie-up negotiations with Boeing, and Canada’s Bombardier has already joined forces with Airbus.