The negative net worth of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd.'s aircraft unit more than doubled to ¥110 billion at the end of March, weighed down by ballooning development costs for its passenger jet, according to its earnings report Friday.
The delivery schedule for Mitsubishi Regional Jet — the first commercial passenger jet developed in Japan — has been delayed five times due to design modifications.
The development costs have risen around fourfold from the initial estimate to ¥600 billion.
Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp. originally planned to hand over the first aircraft to All Nippon Airways Co. in 2013, but the delivery is now not expected to take place until 2020.
The unit's net loss was ¥58.9 billion in fiscal 2017 and its accumulated loss through March 2018 came to ¥210 billion, according to the earnings report published in a government newsletter.
Mitsubishi Heavy plans to revamp the struggling unit with a capital increase by the end of March.