Bombardier has agreed to acquire the assets of MHI Canada Aerospace (MHICA) in Mississauga, Ontario, from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, taking over a longtime supplier of aerostructures for its business jets.
The transaction includes the MHICA operation and its approximately 750 employees. Financial terms were not disclosed, and completion is expected later in 2026, subject to regulatory approvals and other closing conditions.
MHICA manufactures structures for several Bombardier aircraft. Its activities include wing and center fuselage work for Global business jets and wing assembly for the Challenger family. Bombardier said the acquisition will increase the amount of aerostructures work performed internally and reduce its dependence on external suppliers.
MHI will provide support during a transition period after the transaction is completed.
Parallel ties
The sale creates an unusual situation between two companies whose aviation businesses have been connected through two separate relationships.
MHICA traces its work with Bombardier to 1996, when MHI established an operation inside a Bombardier factory in Canada to complete structures manufactured in Japan. The Japanese company incorporated MHICA in Ontario in 2006 and opened a facility in Mississauga the following year for work on Global business jets.
Challenger wing assembly was added in 2008. The operation moved to a larger 270,000-sq-ft facility in 2012 and expanded again in 2019.
This supplier relationship is separate from Mitsubishi's acquisition of the CRJ regional jet program from Bombardier, although the two businesses eventually left the companies with significant aviation operations in Canada at the same time.
Mitsubishi agreed in 2019 to pay Bombardier $550 million for the CRJ program and assume about $200 million in liabilities. The transaction was completed in June 2020 as Bombardier withdrew from commercial aircraft manufacturing to concentrate on business jets.
The CRJ deal included the aircraft type certificates, customer support, maintenance, refurbishment, marketing and sales activities. It did not include CRJ production. Bombardier retained the Mirabel assembly line to complete the remaining backlog before production ended.
Mitsubishi had another reason for acquiring the business. At the time, it was developing the SpaceJet and expected to use the CRJ support organization and its North American infrastructure for its own regional aircraft program.
That aircraft never entered service. MHI suspended SpaceJet development in 2020 and formally canceled the program in 2023. The CRJ business survived as MHI RJ Aviation Group and remains under Mitsubishi ownership, providing aftermarket services for the existing CRJ fleet.
Opposite directions
The latest transaction therefore does not involve Bombardier recovering an operation sold with the CRJ. MHICA has been a Mitsubishi business throughout its history and developed as a supplier to Bombardier rather than as part of the Canadian manufacturer's former commercial aircraft division.
The two transactions nevertheless illustrate the reversal in the companies' strategies since 2020.
When Mitsubishi acquired the CRJ business, Bombardier was selling aircraft programs after transferring the C Series to Airbus and disposing of the Q Series turboprop operation. Mitsubishi, meanwhile, was investing in the infrastructure needed to support its planned entry into the regional aircraft market.
Six years later, the SpaceJet has been canceled and Mitsubishi is selling its Canadian aerostructures operation. Bombardier remains focused on business jets but is now acquiring a supplier responsible for part of the production of those aircraft.
The two companies will still retain another link after the MHICA transaction is completed: Mitsubishi will continue to own the former Bombardier CRJ business through MHI RJ Aviation Group.
