Although pilot union scope clauses at mainline U.S. airlines continue to restrict regional partners from flying airplanes that hold more than 76 seats and carry a maximum takeoff weight of more than 86,000 pounds, Mitsubishi Aircraft sees North America as its “biggest and most important” market, the company’s vice president of sales and marketing, Yugo Fukuhara, told a gathering of reporters at the Regional Airline Association convention in Cleveland Tuesday. Holding orders for 170 airplanes from three airlines in the U.S., Mitsubishi traces well over three quarters of its order intake from the country’s regional airlines. While one might consider such an imbalance risky, Fukuhara expressed confidence that, in fact, scope clauses would loosen to allow for the larger of the two MRJs—the MRJ90—to fly with the likes of Skywest and Trans States Airlines. If the major partners don’t manage to negotiate scope clause revisions, said Fukuhara, Mitsubishi fully expects to deliver MRJ70s instead, likely in a dual-class, 70-seat configuration.
