Ask a random sample of people which city is the European aviation capital, and Toulouse will likely come on top, thanks largely to its association with a world-renowned planemaker. But did you know that the ‘Pink City’ is also home to a lesser-known, yet globally reaching aircraft manufacturer called ATR? ATR stands for Avion de Transport Régional (Regional Transport Airplanes) and is a 50-50 joint venture between Airbus and Italian aerospace giant Leonardo. The manufacturer has been in business since 1981, and, as the name suggests, it produces regional (turboprop) aircraft.
AeroTime had the pleasure of talking to Jean-Daniel Kosowski, Sales Director at ATR – Singapore Branch Office, to discuss how the manufacturer is faring in the world’s busiest, most crucial market at present and what’s coming for the airframer in the future.
An early presence
ATR Singapore covers the whole Asia-Pacific region, starting west with India and reaching as far east as French Polynesia in the Pacific Ocean. “There are three main centers for ATR,” Kosowski said. “There is a Toulouse, there is Singapore for Asia Pacific, and there is Miami, for the Americas.” This global presence ensures that the company can efficiently support thousands of airframes spread around the world.
The airframer enjoyed early traction in the Asian market that led to the setup of the Singapore center in 1988, as Mr. Kosowski explained: “It’s mainly a support center and also a sales center. The sales team is in Singapore. We now support 500 aircraft in Asia-Pacific, and we have 80 customers.”
A winning Formula?
Over the past 44 years, the company’s type line-up hasn’t changed fundamentally. It’s composed of two models, the ATR42 and the ATR72, which are broadly similar, albeit not in terms of their length. Although gradual improvements have been implemented, the aircraft still look very similar to the way they did in 1981, so what changed?
“The ATR has evolved a lot in 40 years,” Mr. Kosowski said. “It is not exactly the same aircraft. From the outside it looks the same, but inside, there have been major changes. The cockpit is now fully digital, so this was a major modification. The engines have also been improved. The interior has been completely redesigned.”
But it’s not only the aircraft that has undergone significant changes. Over the years, the customer base has also transformed. The ATR was developed with short, regional sectors in mind, flying passengers between small-to-medium cities. Once the aircraft hit the Asian market, things changed, as Mr. Kosowski explained: “The type of customers have changed completely. Now we have guys like IndiGo, FedEx. I mean, it was really not the plan at the beginning, and also, the missions of the ATR have changed. So many things have changed in 40 years”.
The adaptability of the aircraft and its low operating costs are key factors for understanding its continued success. “I like to present the ATR as a bit like a Swiss Army knife,” Kosowski said, highlighting its versatility and ruggedness. “For me, there are two main things. The first thing is the low operating costs of the ATR. We’ve always been lower than the competition. And the second thing is the versatility of the ATR. The ATR is a rugged aircraft that can fly anywhere and is easy to fly. But the operating costs are the major driver for me.”
Challenging beginnings
Although the company enjoys a substantial market share today, this was not the case when it first began. Indeed, it’s important to remember that, 40 years ago, the competitive landscape was a lot more crowded than it is today, with huge manufacturer diversity, as Mr. Kosowski recalled: “The biggest challenge we had from at the beginning, […] was that, at the time, there were many airframers competing. We had many competitors. When we arrived, there was the Fokker 50, there was the Q300, and a bit later there was the Saab 2000. There were a lot of turboprops.”
Specifically, when the ATR72 arrived on the market, the Fokker 50 was its prime competitor, with similar capacities and capabilities, while also being fitted with the same engines (Pratt & Whitney PW125/127s).
Additionally, the 1990s was a transformative period, which saw the rise of regional jets, first introduced by the Canadian airframer Bombardier and the iconic CRJ (Canadair Regional Jet). Due to public perception, especially in key US market, regional jets were favored, as they were deemed safer by passengers, who still associated turboprops with the piston-engine aircraft of old.
While this perception is factually unjustified, it contributed to mount a challenge to ATR’s early growth, as Mr. Kosowski explained:
“We had a lot of competition, and then after that we had the regional jet competition […] in the 2000s. In the 90s, it was a turboprop competition. Then they more or less all stopped production. And then the original jet, the first generation, the Embraer 145 and the first Bombardier […] stopped production. I mean, the ATR is the only survivor of this era.”
Competitive landscape
The regional airframer market shrunk dramatically towards the latter part of the 1990s, with Dornier, Fokker, Short, Bae/Avro, Embraer’s EMB120 and Saab having exited the passenger aircraft segment altogether. This meant that competition was now limited to regional jets (Embraer’s ERJ135/140/145, Bombardier’s CRJ200/700/900/1000) or Bombardier’s Q400, a 78-seater fast turboprop.
When asked if this new competitive landscape translated into higher sales for the Toulouse-based airframer, Mr. Kosowski offered some interesting insights:
“The thing about regional aviation that now I understand well after coming from Airbus is this. If you are in Ho Chi Minh City and you want to go to Los Angeles, what do you do? The first thing is, you’re going to fly. Nobody’s going to take a boat, so you’re going to fly […]. Only airlines offer the service. And the airlines fly widebody jets and the technology between Airbus and Boeing is more or less similar. There is no different concept. […] So, if you want to go from Ho Chi Minh City to L.A, it’s a widebody. […] You have no choice.
“Now, if you look at regional aviation, we’re talking about a one-hour flight, let’s say 300 nautical miles/555 kilometers. If you need to travel from A to B for 555km, then it’s very different. You can do many things. You can take a car, you can take a bus, you can take a train, you can take a boat. Our competition, we feel, is not the other aircraft. Most of the time, it’s land transportation. In the world, we’ve calculated that only 3% of short distances trips […] are flown by air. So, the competition in regional aviation is the bus”.
Returning to the specific case of the Q400, Mr. Kosowski said: “At the time when they stopped production, we had a 75% market share. If they come back, probably I don’t see why it would change. Initializing the assembly line is going to cost a lot of money. So, we already had a cost advantage. I mean, spending so much to restart the aircraft is not going to help their cost disadvantage.”
This is further highlighted by the fact that “75% of the [ATR] customers are asking for lower operating costs,” while “25% are asking for lower emissions […]. Lower fuel consumption and lower CO2 emissions also mean lower taxes and many other advantages.’’
Looking ahead: What is in the pipeline for ATR?
One question we were very curious about is how ATR sees its long-term future in an ever-changing industry where sustainability, among other factors, is the name of the game. With 200 customers in 100 countries, ATR is busy modifying its existing platform to suit various short-term needs.
The airframer is currently phasing in business class seats in a 2-1 abreast configuration, to address the burgeoning regional premium segment. Another much-awaited feature currently being implemented is the Starlink in-flight Wi-Fi capability.
For the longer term, ATR is currently “very closely studying an aircraft called EVO, which has hybrid propulsion. The requirements that we have are very stringent because we really need a very substantial cost reduction […] so the engine is paramount, and we also need to lower emissions,” Kosowski said.
He also added that the ATR, as it stands, is already the “lowest emitting aircraft because it has the lowest fuel consumption per seat” of its market segment. Technology maturity will determine when ATR transitions to this new propulsion system, as it needs to pass highly stringent safety tests before being put in commercial service. Mr. Kosowski forecasts its entry into service potentially around 2030.
This will be accompanied by the introduction of a new airframe, more than 60 years after the first ATR flight, a testament to the quality of the original fuselage: “the airframe is an amazing feat of engineering. […]. It’s the lightest frame in the market per seat”.
While ATR enjoys a solid market position, having posted a 1.2 billion USD revenue figure for 2024 with 56 aircraft orders (a +40% increase over 2023), its deliveries plateaued due to global supply chain problems affecting all airframers.
Beyond those results, the company’s focus, as explained by Kosowski, is now very much focused on improving sustainability and connectivity, two pillars that ATR pioneered 40 years ago. Thanks to its unique market positioning, propulsion system and flexibility, the airframer from Toulouse might just be one step ahead of the competition in tackling the challenges of our time.
