Turboprop airliner manufacturer ATR says it is doing better than ever as the company, which is a joint venture between Airbus and Italy’s Leonardo, continues to enhance its products as well as what it can offer airline customers—most recently by creating a new finance and leasing unit. Meanwhile it has been studying the potential for a short-takeoff and landing ATR 42 upgrade, to cater to clients; including those wishing to replace 30-seaters.
Speaking to AIN before the Paris Air Show, CEO Christian Scherer, who joined the company from Airbus some six months ago, said ATR has been “going out with some energy to stimulate demand, and we’re getting good traction. There is a lot more activity today than when I joined.”
He noted that this was not because he joined, necessarily, but said that “I think we’re seeing maybe the start of a wave of replacements as some older aircraft hit their limits, including some regional jets as well.” He agreed that some airlines see the fuel-efficient ATRs as “a natural fuel hedge.”
Scherer noted that continuous development of ATR aircraft is a key factor in its continued success and that any day it is due to receive certification of its new “Standard 3” avionics, which is designed to reduce both pilot workload and ease airline operations—including the ClearVision System (head-mounted Skylens visor displaying basic flight data, synthetic vision system and enhanced vision system). These can be seen on Elbit’s display at the show (Static A8).
On the cabin side Scherer said “You’ll also see our new seats and the modern, clean, lean cabin—and with more overhead volume than many business jets. The noise levels [in the cabin] compare favorably to RJs too.” ATR customers can select the new seats to save 300kg per shipset—“that’s more than three passengers,” said Scherer.
With ATR’s smaller aircraft, the ATR 42, Scherer said “We’re the only manufacturer now offering a 50-seater and we’re proud to have delivered the first one of a recent order to JAL, and some lessors have gone speculative on the 42 as well.” ATR has been working on the “untapped potential” offered by the ATR 42 by developing its short takeoff and landing capabilities–“enabling it to fly in and out of very short runways, as short as 800 meters [2,625 feet] or so. This should open up a whole range of new possibilities–with steep approach capability and operating costs that compare to 30-seaters.” Many of the latter are ripe for retirement, for example Saab 340s, believes Scherer. “Basically you get 20 seats for free, guys!”
He said that the company had “just completed the feasibility study” but was not launching just yet, as it wants to “go to the market” to gauge the level of interest first. But Scherer said the upgrade would probably include “substantial tail modifications, mainly to the rudder,” and replacement with fly-by-wire actuation control, “and enhanced brakes.” It would be “a nice piece of engineering,” he suggested—which is “currently at the maturity gate 3.”
Asked about the new large (90-seat) turboprop which ATR has had on its drawing boards for some time now, Scherer admitted it was still being kept on the back burner. “Of course we’re studying it—I believe there is a market for it but there’s no rush…ATR is doing very well and we’re at record high output.”
He said production was “stabilizing at around 80 aircraft a year, and for the foreseeable future that’s our target. And we can see stability coming to our backlog too—we have two-and-a-half to three years.” He also said that ATR “enjoys a very strong relative position” to its main competitor, Canada’s Bombardier. He concluded: “I don’t think there’s room for more than two players in this market place.”
ATR -600s ranked first among all regional aircraft sales last year, with orders for 36 aircraft (34 ATR 72-600s and two ATR 42-600s), meaning its market share in the 50- to90-seater segment has remained above 35 percent since 2010.
With the company’s 35th anniversary falling in 2016, it saw historical levels of turnover and deliveries “despite a challenging market environment” and achieved its second-highest turnover ever ($1.8 billion), and its third-highest year in terms of deliveries (80 aircraft).
Story updated with new information on June 17, 2017.
Turboprop airliner manufacturer ATR says it is doing better than ever as the company, which is a joint venture between Airbus and Italy’s Leonardo, continues to enhance its products as well as what it can offer airline customers–most recently by creating a new finance and leasing unit. Meanwhile it has been studying the potential for a short-takeoff and landing ATR 42 upgrade, to cater to clients; including those wishing to replace 30-seaters.
Speaking to AIN before the Paris Air Show, CEO Christian Scherer, who joined the company from Airbus some six months ago, said ATR has been “going out with some energy to stimulate demand, and we’re getting good traction. There is a lot more activity today than when I joined.”
He noted that this was not because he joined, necessarily, but said that “I think we’re seeing maybe the start of a wave of replacements as some older aircraft hit their limits, including some regional jets as well.” He agreed that some airlines see the fuel-efficient ATRs as “a natural fuel hedge.”
Scherer noted that continuous development of ATR aircraft is a key factor in its continued success and that any day it is due to receive certification of its new “Standard 3” avionics, which is designed to reduce both pilot workload and ease airline operations–including the ClearVision System (head-mounted Skylens visor displaying basic flight data, synthetic vision system and enhanced vision system). These can be seen on Elbit’s display at the show (Static A8).
On the cabin side Scherer said “You’ll also see our new seats and the modern, clean, lean cabin–and with more overhead volume than many business jets. The noise levels [in the cabin] compare favorably to RJs too.” ATR customers can select the new seats to save 300kg per shipset–“that’s more than three passengers,” said Scherer.
With ATR’s smaller aircraft, the ATR 42, Scherer said “We’re the only manufacturer now offering a 50-seater and we’re proud to have delivered the first one of a recent order to JAL, and some lessors have gone speculative on the 42 as well.” ATR has been working on the “untapped potential” offered by the ATR 42 by developing its short takeoff and landing capabilities–“enabling it to fly in and out of very short runways, as short as 800 meters [2,625 feet] or so. This should open up a whole range of new possibilities–with steep approach capability and operating costs that compare to 30-seaters.” Many of the latter are ripe for retirement, for example Saab 340s, believes Scherer. “Basically you get 20 seats for free, guys!”
He said that the company had “just completed the feasibility study” but was not launching just yet, as it wants to “go to the market” to gauge the level of interest first. But Scherer said the upgrade would probably include “substantial tail modifications, mainly to the rudder,” and replacement with fly-by-wire actuation control, “and enhanced brakes.” It would be “a nice piece of engineering,” he suggested—which is “currently at the maturity gate 3.”
Asked about the new large (90-seat) turboprop which ATR has had on its drawing boards for some time now, Scherer admitted it was still being kept on the back burner. “Of course we’re studying it—I believe there is a market for it but there’s no rush…ATR is doing very well and we’re at record high output.”
He said production was “stabilizing at around 80 aircraft a year, and for the foreseeable future that’s our target. And we can see stability coming to our backlog too—we have two-and-a-half to three years.” He also said that ATR “enjoys a very strong relative position” to its main competitor, Canada’s Bombardier. He concluded: “I don’t think there’s room for more than two players in this market place.”
ATR -600s ranked first among all regional aircraft sales last year, with orders for 36 aircraft (34 ATR 72-600s and two ATR 42-600s), meaning its market share in the 50- to90-seater segment has remained above 35 percent since 2010.
With the company’s 35th anniversary falling in 2016, it saw historical levels of turnover and deliveries “despite a challenging market environment” and achieved its second-highest turnover ever ($1.8 billion), and its third-highest year in terms of deliveries (80 aircraft).
SIDEBAR
New Leasing Arm
In February, ATR announced a new Leasing, Asset Management & Freighter unit to support customers, especially lessors and financiers, with a range of transactions and asset management activities, along with upgrades and modifications such as freighter conversions. Assisting in sale-leaseback transactions will be a key activity. Karine Guenan, formerly the company’s v-p of customer and structured finance, is leading the new unit.
ATR chief executive Christian Scherer said, “Lessors constitute valuable partners that require specific and dedicated interaction with ATR. Karine and her reinforced group bring together expertise of financial markets, leasing markets as well as used and derivative aircraft trading competences. We expect this team’s efforts to result in even stronger asset value performance of our products, which already stand out as the best performing investments in their categories.”
Along with leading the new department, Guenan, who joined ATR in 2002, will continue in her role as vice president of customer and structured finance. ATR says her dual role creates “synergies” between her finance experience and various key aspects of the leasing, used and freighter aircraft markets. “This will help with the identification of key opportunities within a complex marketplace.”
Scherer said ATR is seeing increasing interest from the leasing market and added, “We’re in a strong position with a couple of lessors on our books.” But he said it wasn’t focused on driving more sales. “Don’t read into it that we want to sell lots more aircraft to lessors. The intention is to offer packages and flexible solutions in conjunction with leasing companies.”
ATR in Static [Long Caption?]
ATR said that visitors are welcome on board the ATR 72-600 that it has in the static display here (B2), in the colors of the Indian carrier IndiGo. The aircraft is equipped with the newest passenger comfort developments for the ATR -600 series.
Visitors can discover the “innovation corner”, featuring two rows of Geven’s new Neo Classic seats, which will be fitted as standard on ATR -600s in the near future. The aircraft also features two rows of ultralight Expliseat seats. Both Geven and Expliseat’s seats decrease the overall weight of the aircraft, (170 kg/375 lb and nearly 300 kg/661 lb, respectively).
The ATR 72-600 on display is also be equipped with a new on board Wi-Fi streaming system allowing passengers to access a variety of In-Flight Entertainment (IFE) content on their personal electronic devices.