A couple of months after buying Bombardier’s regional jet business, Mitsubishi announced it’s opening an office near Montreal to focus on its Spacejet small airliner. “As a Japanese company with a global market, we are building a strong global presence in order to position the Mitsubishi SpaceJet family for success,” said Hisakazu Mizutani, president, Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation. “We have great respect for the achievements and capabilities in Quebec and are excited to be here.”
Mitsubishi expects to hire about 100 people for the Montreal office and they will be focused on certification and entry into service of the Spacejet, a clean sheet design that’s been under development for about 15 years and has had its share of problems in the process. About 1,500 people have applied for those 100 jobs already. Mitsubishi has been working on certifying the Spacejet at its facilities in Renton, Washington. Ironically, the Spacejet will be a competitor for the Airbus A220, the current name of the CSeries airliner that was developed by Bombardier.