With no direct competitors, MHIRJ estimates CRJ200s could remain airborne for another two decades.
MHIRJ Aviation’s maintenance business is booming as airlines have been returning more CRJ regional jets to service, a trend the company expects will continue for years due to what it views as a lack of suitable replacements for the ageing passenger aircraft.
At least that is the view of the Quebec firm’s senior vice-president of strategy and business development Ross Mitchell, who also downplays the notion that airline contraction sparked by elevated fuel costs will significantly erode CRJ demand.
That is because during downturns – and especially during recoveries – airlines tend to lean more heavilly on small aircraft, he says. “Think back to 2008 and the financial crisis — the CRJs actually did quite well. Coming back from Covid, CRJs came first. Regional jets were the leading edge of the recovery, simply because you can fill them quicker.”
CRJs, powered by GE Aerospace CF34 turbofans, have not been produced since the last of the type rolled off former owner Bombardier’s assembly line in 2020. That same year, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ MHIRJ division acquired the programme, which largely consists of an aftermarket business supporting the fleet.
MHIRJ runs two US maintenance sites – in West Virginia and Arizona, with a combined roughly 30 maintenance lines – and provides spare parts from a Dallas facility.
It mostly performs airframe heavy maintenance but provides some component repair and overhaul services – a segment it aims to double over two years – and runs a small fabricating operation in West Virginia that primarily produces parts that, due to supply chain constraints, can be tough to procure, like brackets and hinges, says Mitchell.
Several years ago, MHIRJ had offered Embraer 145 maintenance but ended that work to accommodate heightened CRJ maintenance demand. The ERJ-145 is the CRJ200’s prime competitor, both being long-out-of-production 50-seaters.
“Because of the demand for the CRJ, we had to stop that contract and bring in the additional CRJ lines,” Mitchell says. “We’re so busy with the CRJ that actually diversifying is a little bit tough… Our goal right now – first and primary – is CRJ longevity.”
“We have more [CRJs} in service now than we had two years ago,” he adds.
Carriers did pull CRJs, particularly smaller CRJ200s, from service during the Covid-19 pandemic, though they grounded hundreds of jets of all makes and models.
MORE CRJs FLYING
But the CRJ fleet has increased in recent years, with airlines globally now flying some 1,000 of the regional jets, including about 320 CRJ100/200s, 280 CRJ700s, 360 CRJ900s and 37 CRJ1000s, according to fleet data provider Cirium. That compares to about 950 CRJs in service two years ago.
Fleet growth has been more pronounced in the all-important US market, home to the world’s largest regional airlines, which now operate about 605 CRJs, up from 536 two years ago, Cirium shows.
CRJ700s, CRJ900s and CRJ1000s – with roughly 78, 90 and 104 seats respectively – compete most directly with Embraer’s still-in-production E-Jet.
Barring life-extension maintenance programmes, CRJ200s and CRJ700s can operate for 80,000 cycles, while CRJ900s and CRJ1000s have 60,000-cycle limits.
Most CRJ200s now in service have logged about 40,000 cycles. They typically accumulate about 2,000 cycles annually, meaning airlines can likely “fly those aircraft for another 20 years”, Mitchell says. “You can get into the 2040s.”
CRJ200s have also recently experienced a bit of a revival, with United Airlines in March revealing plans this year for regional partner SkyWest Airlines to begin operating “CRJ450s” – CRJ200s modified with new cabins consisting of only 41 seats, including seven in first class.
Some CRJs have recently fallen victim to difficult operating circumstances due to the Middle East conflict and its upward pressure on fuel prices. In April, Lufthansa said its CityLine regional division would ground all 27 of its CRJ900s, accelerating a previous retirement plan.
Mitchell thinks airlines will soon scoop those jets up, saying, “Whenever aircraft have been surplus at a European airline, they end up coming across to North America quickly; Lufthansa maintains the airplanes extremely well”.
While MHIRJ is banking on CRJs remaining airborne for years, Mitchell concedes they cannot fly forever. That leaves a hole in the 50-seat market, where no new-build replacements exist.
Several start-ups recently launched development of clean-sheet next-generation regional jets powered by alternative propulsion systems. Examples include Dutch firm Maeve Aerospace and Los Angeles-based Heart Aerospace, both of which are working to bring hybrid-electric aircraft to market.
Those firms promise their designs will be significantly more fuel efficient than existing aircraft, and they have garnered interest from airlines. Still, considerable technical and financial hurdles make success uncertain.
Mitchell insists only a significantly more efficient aircraft can fill the CRJ200’s shoes.
“It will probably have to be something like hybrid-electric… It’s going to have to save considerable fuel to make up for the ownership costs that it’s going to incur,” he says.
By contrast, many operators long ago paid off their CRJs; those jets are “pretty much free from an ownership perspective”, Mitchell says.
Turboprop maker ATR last year made a big push to convince US airlines to replace 50-seat jets with a new 50-seat variant of its typically 75-seat ATR-72-600 – an aircraft it says will cost 30% less to operate per seat.
To attract US customers, ATR has proposed giving the 72-600 first-class seats and a forward boarding door, rather than the standard rear entrance. No major US airlines have yet signed orders, however.
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