The M.C.94 was designed by Mario Castoldi as a commercial passenger transport flying boat to replace the Ala Littoria airline's elderly CANT 10s.

Constructed mainly of wood, it was a high-wing cantilever monoplane with a two-step hull and single fin and rudder.

The prototype, which was an amphibian with a retractable wheeled undercarriage which swung forward into streamlined casings in the leading edges of the wings, was powered by two 574 kilowatts (770 hp) Wright SGR-1820-F Cyclone nine-cylinder air-cooled radial engines mounted above the wing, each driving a tractor propeller.

The Regia Aeronautica (Italian Royal Air Force) declined purchase of the final six production aircraft, [citation needed] which Ala Littoria then also bought.

In 1939, Ala Italia sold three of its M.C.94s to its Argentinian partner, Corporación Sudamericana de Servicios Aéreos.