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Delivery of Japan passenger jet pushed back by 2 years

TOKYO — Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said on Monday (Jan 23) it would postpone delivery of its long-awaited regional jet by two years, marking the latest delay for the problem-plagued plane.

A visitor takes a picture of a poster of Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ) during Japan Aerospace 2016 air show in Tokyo, Japan, October 12, 2016. Reuters file photo

A visitor takes a picture of a poster of Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ) during Japan Aerospace 2016 air show in Tokyo, Japan, October 12, 2016. Reuters file photo

TOKYO — Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said on Monday (Jan 23) it would postpone delivery of its long-awaited regional jet by two years, marking the latest delay for the problem-plagued plane.

This is the fifth time that the company has pushed back the commercial rollout of its Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ), Japan’s first domestically produced passenger plane for over half a century

The decision to push back delivery to mid-2020 from mid-2018 comes after local media reports said the plane needed more design changes to ensure it was safe.

The problem was linked to the location of certain electronic equipment, the Nikkei business daily and other Japanese media reported.

The company said it was modifying the design of “electrical configurations” to meet the latest safety standards.

But “we are confident about its safety”, company president Shunichi Miyanaga told a press briefing in Tokyo.

The development of the MRJ has suffered a series of delays, largely owing to software upgrades and other design changes.

The original plan when the programme started in 2008 was for the first customer delivery to begin in 2013.

The twin-engine MRJ marks a new chapter in the country’s aviation sector, which last built a commercial airliner in 1962 — the YS-11 turboprop that was discontinued about a decade later.

After initially being barred from developing aircraft following World War II, Japan — and its MRJ jet — is competing with other passenger jet manufacturers such as Brazil’s Embraer and Canada’s Bombardier.

Mitsubishi Heavy unveiled the jet — which is about 35 metres (115-feet) long and seats about 80 passengers — in October 2014 and has received more than 400 orders.

The short-to-medium-haul plane was backed by the Japanese government and a consortium of major firms including Toyota.

Last year, the new passenger jet completed a flight to the United States for testing, after aborting two earlier attempts.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’s Tokyo-listed shares slipped 1.59 per cent to close at 524.1 yen (S$6.50). AFP

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