Mitsubishi jet hit with up to 20-plane cancellation from US buyer

Japan's Mitsubishi Aircraft said Friday that a US leasing company had cancelled an order for up to 20 SpaceJet passenger planes, marking the first such withdrawal since the troubled regional jet program was put on hold last fall. Aerolease Aviation ordered 10 SpaceJets in 2016 with an option to purchase 10 more. The company cancelled the order for the 90-seater craft at the end of December. This cuts the total number of SpaceJets on order to 267, including jets that are optioned. Aerolease Aviation said it would reconsider the SpaceJet if development goes back on track. "We wish the team success in eventually restarting the program as soon as practicable, and we remain interested in resuming our relationship with them when that happens," Managing Partner Jep Thornton said, according to Mitsubishi Aircraft. Parent company Mitsubishi Heavy Industries poured about 1t yen ($9.6b) into developing the SpaceJet, but a string of problems delayed the initial delivery date six times. In October, President Seiji Izumisawa announced a "freeze" in development of the plane, which was original conceived as the Mitsubishi Regional Jet. Mitsubishi Heavy has slashed the annual budget for the program by 90%.<br/>