About 70% of air routes from Wuhan of fewer than 600 km (380 mi.) have been closed since the arrival of fast train services to the central Chinese city. The latest service to be closed is that to Nanchang, hard on the heels of the abandonment of Nanjing flights that China Southern and Henan airlines had tried to keep going after high-speed rail competition began in 2009. They eventually decided that the prospect of higher train frequencies was too much for them.

Mitsubishi Aircraft and parent Mitsubishi Heavy Industries are confirming the program schedule for the MRJ regional jet as assembly of the first unit begins in Nagoya. Six months after manufacturing of the first part began, Mitsubishi Heavy ceremonially started the riveting of a frame around the cockpit emergency escape hatch.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, now building the first Mitsubishi Regional Jet, intends to apply continuous and rapid process improvement under the Japanese kaizen philosophy. Managers aim to begin assembling the first aircraft this year for an initial flight in 2012 and deliver it in early 2014, with no hint of a serious slip in the schedule so far.