Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) plans to step up its MRO activities in the wake of its recent decision to pause almost all development of its M90 Spacejet.

The Japanese company wants to leverage its knowledge as type certificate holder for the CRJ program, which it acquired from Bombardier.

MHI closed the deal in June, acquiring the maintenance, support, refurbishment, marketing and sales activities for the CRJ series, plus their type certificates. The sale included Bombardier’s CRJ services and support network

Interestingly, MHI also wants to expand its MRO reach to non-CRJ platforms, as well as pursue a feasibility study for a potential CRJ upgrade.

It will also explore customer synergies across the CRJ and Spacejet programs.

Speaking to Inside MRO earlier this year, MHI said that the Spacejet program would be able “to take full advantage of this unparalleled customer support workforce and be ready to jump back into the competition once it fully restarts the program”.

However, aside from type certification documentation work, MHI plans to halt development of the M90 for the time being.

“Given current development status and market conditions, we have no choice but to temporarily pause the majority of SpaceJet activities, except for TC documentation,” stated the company.
“We will work to review where we stand, make improvements, and assess a possible program restart.”

This follows a decision earlier in the year to halt development of the smaller M100 and to pause flight testing of the M90.

“Once we achieve type certification, at that point we will reevaluate the market and the needs of our customers and determine entry into service in line with their schedules,” an MHI spokesman told Inside MRO after that decision.