TOKYO (Reuters) -Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd has internally decided to terminate the development of the Mitsubishi SpaceJet aircraft, Japanese media reported on Monday.
Mitsubishi Heavy had suspended development of the aircraft, formerly called Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ), in 2020 after a series of delays.
The announcement will be made as early as Tuesday, the Nikkei business daily reported.
When contacted by Reuters about the media report, a Mitsubishi Heavy spokesperson said no decision was made about the SpaceJet project being terminated at this point.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, with Japanese government encouragement, started the SpaceJet program in a bid to establish itself as a global commercial planemaker.
The development, however, was plagued by technical problems that forced it to delay its first delivery to ANA six times.
(Reporting by Satoshi Sugiyama; writing by Kantaro Komiya; editing by Chang-Ran Kim and Jason Neely)
