On September 5, Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Mesa Airlines to begin formal negotiations for the purchase of 100 Mitsubishi SpaceJet M100 aircraft. The MOU was announced during a signing event at the Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation America’s booth during the Regional Airline Association’s annual conference held in Nashville, Tenn.
Aircraft OEMs hoping to break into the U.S. regional carrier market face a severe challenge presented by pilot unions known as a scope clause. A scope clause is an agreement between an airline and its pilots that attempts to protect pilot jobs by limiting regional airline passenger capacity.
The current scope clause allows a maximum of 76 seats but does not allow enough gross weight to achieve this capacity with the new generation, heavier jet engines. To meet airline requirements to seat 76 passengers and their baggage while limiting the maximum take-off weight to 86,000 lb, Mitsubishi engineers needed to start over and redesign the aircraft.
What they came up with was the scope-compliant Mitsubishi SpaceJet family of aircraft. The SpaceJet M100 offers the most spacious cabins, widest economy seats, and most overhead bin capacity of any aircraft in their class.
Mesa Airlines will be taking delivery of its first SpaceJet M100 aircraft in 2024. Mesa is a regional air carrier providing passenger service to 136 cities in 42 states, Canada, Mexico, Cuba and the Bahamas. The airline currently operates a fleet of 145 aircraft with approximately 742 daily departures, and has 3,400 employees.