MHIRJ Starts Evaluating CRJ Successor

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Regional Jets (MHIRJ), the Canadian license holder of the Bombardier CRJ, is evaluating technology for the future regional airliner. A new regional aircraft could be required around 2040. Ross Mitchell, MHIRJ Senior Vice President for business development, contract negotiation, marketing and communication, gave an update to AirInsight at the Farnborough Airshow. A year ago, we discussed how MHIRJ had become a service supplier to Dutch startup Maeve, which was exploring options for a hybrid-electric, new-technology airliner. In May, Maeve went bankrupt after failing to attract sufficient financial backing for the next stage. “Probably towards the end of the year we noticed that the situation was getting worse in terms of the finances. They weren’t able to raise the capital they needed to”, Mitchell says. Maeve's bankruptcy didn’t affect MHIRJ in any significant way, as MHIRJ wasn’t a creditor. The Japanese/Canadian company didn’t acquire any assets or intellectual property of the design, but it took over the R&D department near Munich that Maeve CTO Martin Nüsseler had established. “We really liked the team in Munich and thought that some of the concepts were quite good. So we added ten people from the office that are now our advanced design team, looking at future regional aircraft possibilities.” “It might look like the Maeve aircraft, it might look different. But we found a group that worked quite well with us, so it was good for us to add them on and start thinking of what we want to do in the future. The CRJ still has a long way in front of it, but there is a requirement for replacement, certainly in the 2040s. We want to be thinking about that.” That’s what Martin Nüsseler has to do: “He needs to come up with a design and think what we are going to do on the airframe, what are we doing for engine solutions, how does the aircraft look like, what are the economics. So that we can determine if we want to go into that space. And if we do, how.” Airbus and Boeing have in mind to launch new aircraft in the early 2030s. “I think we will be a little bit behind them in terms of timing. It is not that we have forever, but we want to have time to make the right decisions on what that next thing is.” Half-life MHIRJ sees the replacement for the CRJs coming around 2040. “Most of the CRJ fleet is only approaching its half-life, so it still has another half of its life to go. Frankly, the key advantages of the CRJ are low ownership costs. Many are paid off, because they are 10 or 15 years old or more, and they provide great economics for the airline.” “For example, CRJ700s are finding new lives as CRJ550s within the United fleet. Recently, United launched the CRJ450, which is a CRJ200 with 41 seats. CRJ200s will come out of storage to become CRJ450s.” But then Lufthansa CityLine recently ended operations, making numerous CRJ900s and -1000s redundant. Mitchell is positive about their future. “I do believe that the 900s will be quickly absorbed by other airlines; it is a very popular aircraft. At that age, they have reasonable ownership costs, so it will be very easy to absorb them into North American airlines or elsewhere. Today, there are no 700s available at all, and it is hard to find a 900, other than those Lufthansa aircraft.” Regional Despite the trend of upgauging to higher-capacity aircraft, Mitchell believes there is still demand for an aircraft the size of the CRJ700. “Absolutely. I talk to the three majors of the US, who are the vast users of our fleet more than anyone else. Their view is that they will always need regional aircraft. In fact, some believe they will always need the 50-seat space as well because of the geographic spread in the US and the lack of alternatives. Small, outlying cities require that aircraft.” “What they tell us is that there is a trend towards de-urbanisation. People are leaving bigger cities, moving to smaller cities. It is an after-effect from COVID. That strengthens the move towards regional flying, because you can’t put an A321 on a route that is a 50-seat route.” “Regional fleets are very big in the US and continue to grow; they aren’t getting smaller. Where they have is really in Europe. The dynamic is different, with trains and low-cost carriers that disrupt the market. But if you would have an aircraft that would bring significant fuel-burn advantages into the market, you will revive regional traffic in Europe.” “We see a lot of airlines in Africa, with 900s going into East Africa. They are good aircraft for those locations, because they aren’t very dense and can’t put a larger aircraft on them.” [caption id="attachment_192260" align="aligncenter" width="523"] Martin Nüsseler and Jan Willem Heinen with the Maeve Jet in Paris 2025[/caption] Step-change Whatever the Munich team is doing, a new aircraft needs to have new technology. “You need to have a step-change. That’s what the team is looking at: where is that and how do we achieve it, so that we could put something together that is compelling enough that the shareholders would approve.” This likely includes some form of hybrid-electric technology. Hydrogen has been on MHIRJ’s radar through a partnership with ZeroAvia, which would provide hydrogen-electric powerplants on converted CRJs. But the situation at ZeroAvia is blurred since founder and CEO Val Miftakov left the company. “Hydrogen is probably a wait-and-see for us. We have done some engineering work for them to evaluate whether you could use that sort of propulsion technology on an aircraft like the CRJ. It was an engineering services work we were doing with them to validate their concept, not a situation that we were actively considering that engine on the aeroplane anytime in the future. We will have to see if that technology will mature and allow adoption on an aircraft like ours.” Mitchell mentioned shareholders, which are Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Ten years ago, they were actively promoting their Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ), which in 2019 became the SpaceJet, before concluding that the project would be a commercial failure. MHI’s recently announced strategy update only refers to the CRJ450, but nothing else indicates that the Japanese company eyes a return to its own commercial aircraft program. Of course, it is a big tier-1 supplier to Boeing on the 777 and 787. “They are supporting us and certainly view what the future market should be. Having an advanced design team in MHIRJ certainly helps them in the ways they are thinking about future technology as well. They have an interest (in commercial aviation), but we are still in the very early stages of considering what we should do next. Until we put something interesting to them, it would rise to the level of the mid-term plan.” The bankruptcy of Maeve showed how hard it is for startups to get their projects up and running. “It is definitely hard to get third-party investors to fund new technology like that. And there are competing interests (for investors). There is AI, but a lot of money has gone into eVTOLs. A lot of it hasn’t been successful. Perhaps that changed the perception of investors in financing early-stage aviation projects. It will be hard for independent entities to get the funding they need to continue.”

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