JAL, ANA eye small Mitsubishi passenger jets-report

TOKYO, March 20 (Reuters) - Japan Airlines Corp (JAL) (9205.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and All Nippon Airways Co Ltd (ANA) (9202.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) are in the final stages of deciding whether to buy small passenger jetliners being developed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd (7011.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the Sankei newspaper reported on Thursday.

Mitsubishi has been trying to develop the lightweight, fuel efficient next-generation "Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ)" with 70-90 seats, with an estimated development cost of 150 billion yen, Sankei said.

The daily said ANA was expected to buy about 30 such jets while JAL was likely to buy more than 30 jetliners and introduce them sometime after 2012.

If the two airliners decided to buy the jetliners, it was expected to give an impetus to Mitsubishi's project to develop Japan's second domestically-developed passenger plane in the post-war era, the daily said.

Mitsubishi wants to secure at least 100 advance orders for the jet before moving ahead to commercialise the production, Sankei said.

The jet was likely to be priced at 3-4 billion yen ($30-40 million), the Nikkei business daily said.

"Demand for such aircraft is forecast to reach 5,000 units worth about 10-15 trillion yen over the next two decades," Nikkei said, adding that Mitsubishi Heavy wants to sell 1,000 small jets.

Officials for the three companies were not immediately available for comment. (Reporting by Teruaki Ueno; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)