Japan’s Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp, trying to keep its new regional jet on track after series of delays, was forced to cancel a demo flight for the world’s aerospace industry on Tuesday after the jet was hit by a truck. The prang, which follows the jet’s debut at the show on Monday, will not interrupt marketing efforts. But it will do nothing to help the Mitsubishi Regional Jet pull in orders at a time when giants Airbus and Boeing are extending their grip to the smaller end of the market. The 90-seat MRJ, Japan’s great hope for reviving a dormant commercial aviation industry, was launched a decade ago. Five delays later, it is now expected to enter service with Japanese carrier ANA Holdings Inc in 2020, compared with the initial target of 2013. As a result, it missed a potentially lucrative window of opportunity to be the first to market with the latest generation of fuel-efficient regional jets. It is up against Embraer, whose commercial aircraft arm may be controlled by Boeing if a provisional deal between the manufacturers is completed. Meanwhile, Airbus has pushed into the smaller end of the jet market with a deal to take control of the Bombardier Inc CSeries, now branded as the A220. “These developments are disastrous for the MRJ,” said Richard Aboulafia, vice president, analysis at Teal Group. “They are no longer competing with small companies from Canada and Brazil; they are now competing with global aerospace behemoths, with enormous pricing power and industrial scale.”<br/>
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Authorities say two planes carrying more than 250 passengers made emergency landings at Kansas City International Airport. Kansas City Aviation Department spokesman Joe McBride says the first emergency landing happened around 4:30 p.m. Monday after crews on Delta flight 923 reported a fuel leak. The plane was coming from Detroit Metropolitan Airport to Kansas City with 117 people aboard. McBride says about an hour later, Alaska Airlines flight 1097 was diverted to Kansas City because of pressurization issues. The Alaska Airlines flight had been headed from Dulles Airport in suburban Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles International Airport with 150 passengers.<br/>
Airbus's bet on a slow-selling Canadian jetliner is paying off. The European planemaker reached its second 60-plane deal in a week for the A220 aircraft, this time through a pact with a planned US carrier backed by airline entrepreneur David Neeleman. The agreement is valued at $5.4b before customary discounts, the same as last week’s order by JetBlue Airways. The twin deals bolster Airbus’s efforts to quickly find new customers for the jet, a single-aisle aircraft which was known as the C Series until Bombardier Inc. ceded control July 1. Neeleman said he would use the plane’s long range and comfortable cabin to break into a US market dominated by only four major airlines. “These guys have not been growing for a long time,” he said. “A lot of communities are underserved and fares are really high. There are pockets of pain everywhere. Globally, fuel is up but I have a very fuel-efficient airplane.” Deliveries of the A220-300 jets will start in 2021, Airbus said in a statement announcing the preliminary agreement with Neeleman and a group of investors. The agreement ups the ante in the high-stakes contest between Airbus and Boeing in the lucrative market for narrow-body jetliners. Less than a week after Airbus closed its deal with Bombardier, Boeing announced a venture with Brazil’s Embraer to join forces on small commercial planes.<br/>
Beoing stood by the air-cargo market during a withering downturn a decade ago, and that decision is paying off handsomely now. The US planemaker has netted $18.2b in freighter sales and commitments this week at the Farnborough International Airshow, including deals for 48 of the cargo-hauling version of the 777 jet. The customers range from European package-delivery firm DHL to Qatar Airways and Russian bulky-cargo specialist Volga-Dnepr Group. Airbus hasn’t sold a single cargo plane at the show. Boeing’s freighter haul is well above the seven sales tallied for its popular 787 Dreamliner at the industry’s largest trade expo this year. It’s also more than the 34 passenger wide-body aircraft that Boeing and Airbus have sold in total this week, valued at $11.1b before customary discounts. “We’re not done,” Boeing VP Randy Tinseth said. He compiles detailed 20-year market outlooks for the Chicago-based manufacturer. “I think you could refer to it as unprecedented. It’s a testament to the strong two, two and a-half years in the market.” One trigger for the cargo comeback is the growth in online shopping, which has transformed the retail experience. After parking or scrapping freighters during the decade-long slump, many package carriers don’t have enough aircraft on hand to keep pace with demand. There’s also unusual prosperity spanning the globe. <br/>