Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp. is aiming to secure its first new order in more than 18 months by year-end for its still-in-development commercial jet.
"We'll probably be able to get new orders within the year," Mitsubishi Aircraft President Teruaki Kawai said in a recent interview with Kyodo News.
The aircraft manufacturer, established in 2008 as a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., has not received any fresh orders for its Mitsubishi Regional Jet, Japan's first small commercial jet, since December 2012.
The jet maker last year postponed the plane's delivery schedule for the third time to the April-June quarter of 2017. The aircraft was initially scheduled to be delivered in 2013.
The Nagoya-based company has received orders for 325 MRJs so far, compared with the goal of over 1,000 that the company has set for the next two decades.
The situation "will change once (the jet) starts flying," the president said, referring to the first flight test scheduled in 2015.
Faced with tough competition from Brazil's Embraer S.A. and Canada's Bombardier Inc. as well as Chinese and Russian jet makers, Mitsubishi Aircraft is looking to win customers with the plane's fuel efficiency, which the company claims will be 20 percent better than comparable aircraft.
The aircraft will come in two configurations of 76 and 88 seats. Japan's biggest carrier All Nippon Airways Co. is scheduled to receive the first plane.
Source: http://www.globalpost.com
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