On Oct. 30, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. announced that it would freeze the SpaceJet project, underway at subsidiary Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp. and aimed at developing the nation¡¯s first homegrown passenger jet aircraft, citing the plunge in air travel caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
With the suspension, the budget for the project will be slashed to ?20 billion for the three years from April 2021 ¡ª about one-twentieth of the ?370 billion allocated to the project from fiscal 2018 to fiscal 2020, which ends in March next year.
¡°I offer my profound apologies (to our clients) that the development has been delayed,¡± said MHI President Seiji Izumisawa in an online news conference.
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