Tokyo Jet Plans May Be Grounded

The Ministry of International Trade and Industry has launched a review of the viability of a 10-year old plan to create a 100-seat Japanese-made regional passenger aircraft, known as the YSX, according to Japanese media reports.

This follows the announcement by one of the YSX's main industrial participants it might pull out and form a joint venture with a foreign partner.

This appears to have been a severe blow to the scheme, already called into question by a world price war for commuter aircraft. We are not satisfied with the slow pace of the project, Tatsuya Kugo, head of Miti's aircraft and ordnance division, was quoted as saying by Kyodo news agency. We have to carefully examine the project's feasibility, the official added.

 

Project planners say there are no technical problems, but it is unclear whether there is a market for the 200 aircraft needed to break even. Sales were scheduled to start in 2000, but officials say this is now unlikely.

Miti officials were not available to comment yesterday, a Japanese national holiday.

The main partners in YSX are Japan's top aerospace component producers, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Fuji Heavy Industries and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, plus Miti itself and the state-backed Japan Aircraft Development Corporation.

Last month, Mitsubishi indicated that it wanted to abandon the scheme and produce a cheaper 100-seat aircraft based on an existing model developed with Bombardier, the Canadian aerospace group.

Miti is now studying the Mitsubishi-Bombardier option as an alternative to the YSX, originally envisaged as a joint venture with Boeing, until the US aerospace group's decision to shelve involvement, to save costs, three years ago. But if Miti does follow that route, it is likely that the Japanese partners would continue, as they are now, as mere subcontractors to a foreign-based project.