Japan Unveils First Domestically-built Passenger Jet

(RTTNews) - Japan's first domestically-built passenger jet, the Mitsubishi Regional Jet, was unveiled on Saturday by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. (MHVYF.PK), as the Asian country aims to enter the highly-competitive commercial aircraft market.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and its subsidiary, Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp., held a rollout ceremony on Saturday for the Mitsubishi Regional Jet or MRJ, a next-generation regional jet, at the Komaki Minami Plant of MHI's Nagoya Aerospace Systems Works in Aichi Prefecture.

The rollout ceremony was attended by several guests, including Akihiro Nishimura, State Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism; Hideki Niwa, State Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology; Japanese government officials, and Shinichiro Ito, President and CEO of ANA Holdings Inc., the launch customer.

The Mitsubishi Regional Jet is a family of 70 seat and 90-seat next-generation aircraft featuring Pratt & Whitney's PurePower geared turbofan engine and state-of-the-art aerodynamics to drastically reduce fuel consumption, noise, and emissions. The aircraft are touted to be about 20 percent more fuel-efficient than existing planes of similar size.

MRJ's first flight is scheduled for the April-June quarter of 2015, while first delivery is slated in 2017. The current number of orders for the MRJ is 375 aircraft, comprising of 191 firm orders, 160 option and 24 purchase rights.

The market for regional jets has been dominated by Brazil's Embraer SA (ERJ) and Canada's Bombardier Inc. (BBD_A.TO, BBD_B.TO), while Mitsubishi Aircraft also has to compete with new entrants from Russia and China.

According to Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp., demand for 70- to 90-seat class aircraft for the next 20 years is expected to over 5,000 units due to the market trend of up-sizing from 50-seat regional jets and route-transfers from mainline jets to large regional jets amid high fuel price and low passenger yield.

Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp.'s shareholders include Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Corp., Toyota Motor Corp (TM) and Sumitomo Cop., among others.

MHVYF.PK closed Friday's trading at $5.75, down $0.05 or 0.86 percent on a volume of 1,000 shares.