ATR plans to announce several orders at the Paris Airshow, marking a return of growth for the airframer after a couple of difficult years caused by the pandemic and a slower-than-anticipated production ramp-up due to post-Covid supply chain and staffing bottlenecks. The European turboprop manufacturer expressed confidence it can deliver at least 40 new aircraft and sell more than 40 aircraft this year. Those figures represent a sizable increase in its performance in 2022, when it shipped 25 new and 11 used aircraft and inked orders for just 26 new aircraft.
“We never doubted the market for and the fundamentals of the ATR turboprop, not even on the darkest days of Covid,” noted ATR senior v-p of commercial Fabrice Vautier. “Now we have to provide proof of our belief.”
Customers in Asia and South America account for most of the orders secured this year, said Vautier. This year’s orders also reflect an evolution of the market, he added. While most of the customers signed in 2021 aimed to replace aging fleets, orders placed in recent months support growth, especially in Asia. “What we see is that there are very limited replacement orders so far this year,” he remarked.
This year’s order intake includes purchases of the ATR 42-600S, the short take-off and landing (STOL) variant of the ATR 42-600 regional turboprop capable of operating from runways as short as 800 meters (2,600 feet). ATR expects entry into service of the ATR 42-600S at the end of 2024 or early 2025. “The new STOL orders validate our conviction that the ATR aircraft plays a crucial role in providing access to health, education, and trade to even smaller and remote communities,” Vautier said.
The STOL variant marks part of ATR’s strategy of continuous incremental product development—which resulted in the launch of the purpose-built ATR 72-600F freighter and the introduction of the new Pratt & Whitney Canada PW127XT engine series—aimed at maintaining its leadership position in the market segment that covers up to 90 seats.
In the 30- to 70-seat segment, ATR now stands as the only OEM producing new passenger aircraft.
ATR’s main turboprop competitor, De Havilland of Canada (DHC), halted the production of the Dash 8-400 during the Covid pandemic and in September last year said it was working toward reintroducing the aircraft into production at its new facility in Wheatland County, Alberta. The company has not provided an update since then and did not respond to a query from AIN about whether and when it intends to resume production of Dash 8.
Deutsche Aircraft continues the development of the 40-seat D328eco airliner, which will feature an integrated Garmin Companion flight deck and new PW127XT-S engines. However, the company expects certification of the aircraft only in the second half of 2026.
Data points to a strong recovery of the global ATR in-service passenger fleet. Globally, ATR aircraft fly 97 percent of pre-Covid available seat kilometers (ASKs), according to Vautier. The pace of recovery differs by region. Europe leads the recovery, and ASKs aboard ATR aircraft have reached 107 percent of June 2019 levels. Africa, which is a small market for ATR, stands at 95 percent of pre-Covid ASKs, and Asia, which was slow to lift travel restrictions, has reached 98 percent. Within Asia, however, the pace of recovery remains uneven. Capacity flown with ATR aircraft continues to grow quickly in South Asia, particularly in India, Bangladesh, and Nepal, and ASKs have exceeded pre-Covid levels by 78 percent. Other parts of Asia show much slower recovery patterns. In Indonesia, for example, only half of the 120 ATRs that flew in the country before Covid have re-entered service. According to Vautier, supply chain disruptions at maintenance providers have slowed the large Indonesian ATR fleet’s pace of return to service.
ATR continues working on its hybrid-electric ATR Evo and the Toulouse-based OEM expects to have a clearer view of the engine application by the end of the year. “We still target a launch in 2025 and entry into service in 2030,” Vautier said. “Our objective for the Evo is twofold: lowering the ATR platform’s operating costs and improving its environmental credentials.”
Vautier acknowledged that several start-ups already have started working on new technology pathways to power regional turboprops, including hydrogen-fuel cell-based propulsion, electric, or hybrid-electric. “It is comforting us that turboprops are considered a technology of the future,” he commented. “We see no impact on our sales. Unlike the big blue-chip airlines, our customers do not plan their fleets five, six, or seven years ahead. They buy for delivery in the next two years. It will take more than two years to have a hydrogen-powered aircraft certified.”