In 2020, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries purchased the entire CRJ line from Bombardier, and will continue support for the aircraft.

During 1987, the year following Canadair's sale to Bombardier, design studies commenced into options for producing a substantially more ambitious stretched configuration of the Challenger.

Over 300 mi (480 km) routes, the faster climb and cruise gave it a one third time advantage of 50 min compared to similarly sized turboprops.

[7] In addition, the projected operating costs of the CRJ was lower than some of its turboprop-powered rivals, including the Fokker 50, the ATR-42, and the Bombardier Dash 8.

[3] On 26 July 1993, the first prototype (C-FCRJ) was lost in a spin mishap near the Bombardier test center in Wichita, Kansas.

[17][18] During 1995, Bombardier embarked on design studies and a detailed market evaluation on the topic of producing a substantially enlarged derivative of the CRJ200.

[3] On June 1, 2020, the entire Bombardier CRJ regional airliner family was sold to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), which plans to continue manufacturing spare parts and providing maintenance support.

Roughly, the CL-600 was stretched 5.92 metres (19 feet 5 inches), which was achieved using fuselage plugs fore and aft of the wing, and was matched with the adoption of a reinforced and modified wing, an expanded fuel capacity, improved landing gear to handle the higher weights, and an additional pair of emergency exit doors.

[15] According to aviation author Dean Roberts, the CRJ100 had benefitted greatly from an industry-wide shift towards hub-and-spoke networks in the United States, which had resulted from the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978.

[26][22][27] The company's sales strategy was augmented by the availability of financing from the Canadian government, via which means customers of the CRJ would sometimes partially-finance their purchase.

[33] Delta's influence on the fortunes of the CRJ program was significant, during late 2004, when Bombardier announced an incoming cut in the type's production rate, amongst the reasons given was a delay in anticipated orders for additional CRJ200s.

Outfitted with a 44-seat configuration, designated as the CRJ440, these aircraft had closets in the forward areas of the passenger cabin, though these were later converted to 50 seat airplanes.

These modifications were designed to allow operations under their major airline contract "scope clause" which restricted major airlines' connection carriers from operating equipment carrying 50 or more passengers to guard against usurpation of Air Line Pilots Association and Allied Pilots Association pilots' union contract; these scope clauses have been since relaxed when union contracts were re-written between unions and the three remaining U.S. legacy carriers.

[citation needed] During the middle of the 2000s, Bombardier's commercial aircraft division had incurred persistent operational losses, which motivated management to initiate restructuring and cost-cutting efforts.

[34] As such, during 2004, repeated cuts to the production rate of the CRJ100/200 series were announced in conjunction with declining market forecasts, which had the effect of narrowing the division's losses.

[36][37][38] The company soon adopted a new market strategy, prioritising the newer and larger CRJ700 and its direct derivatives over other products, such as its turboprop range and the older CRJ100 and CRJ200 models that had spawned them.

[41] While no further CRJ100 or CRJ200 jet liners have been constructed since 2006, over the years since then, various technologies and innovations have been retrofitted onto examples of the type, which have largely remained in commercial service.

[42][page needed] By 2013, fuel costs have made smaller 50-seat regional jets uneconomical on many US routes, accelerating the retirement of young CRJ100/200s, and lowering the ERJ-135/145 values.