Bombardier's CRJ Regional Jets Will Soon Be Owned by Japan's Mitsubishi
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries announced Tuesday morning that it would buy Bombardier's cash-strapped regional jet division, the maker of the CRJ series of airplanes that does the bulk of regional flying in the US. The jets will be produced until 2020.
The Japanese company agreed to pay $550 million to Bombardier and assume an additional $200 million of the Canadian manufacturer's existing debt. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2020.
"This transaction represents one of the most important steps in our strategic journey to build a strong, global aviation capability," Seiji Izumisawa, MHI's president and CEO said in a statement. "It augments these efforts by securing a world-class and complementary set of aviation-related functions including maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO), engineering and customer support."
MHI said the acquisition of Bombardier's jet division would help the "development, production and sale" of its still in-development SpaceJet. Check out TPG's Paris Air Show coverage for more about that project.
CNBC reported that those jets were originally planned for delivery in 2013, but have been delayed until 2020.
According to MHI's press release, Canadair Regional Jet production will continue into 2020 to fulfill an order backlog, and Bombardier will continue to supply parts for existing CRJs. The CRJ series comes in four different models with varying fuselage lenghts, seating from 50 to 100 passengers. Hundreds of CRJs fly for the regional affiliates of all the the US legacy airlines.
