ATR 72

ATR, from Avions de transport régional in French and Aerei da Trasporto Regionale in Italian, is the joint venture through which France's Aérospatiale and Italy's Aeritalia merged their work on a new generation of regional aircraft during the 1980s. Its first product was the ATR 42, which flew on 16 August 1984. In the middle of that decade the partners wanted a larger-capacity aircraft and developed the ATR 72 directly from the 42: the principal change was raising maximum seating from 48 to 78, achieved by stretching the fuselage by 4.5 metres, increasing the wingspan, fitting more powerful engines and adding roughly ten per cent more fuel capacity. The programme was launched on 15 January 1986, the prototype flew on 27 October 1988, France's Directorate General for Civil Aviation certified the type on 25 September 1989, and on 27 October that year Finnair put it into revenue service.

Sharing the Toulouse final assembly line with the ATR 42, along with most subsystems, components and manufacturing techniques, has been decisive for the longevity of both models: by 2015 the 42 was the only fifty-seat regional aircraft still in production. The 72 has advanced through successive generations, with new avionics and newer engine versions to cut fuel burn and operating costs. The version in production since October 2007 is the -600 series, announced on 2 October that year, which over the -500 adopts improved PW127M engines, a glass cockpit and a set of smaller refinements. In December 2015 EASA approved a high-density cabin that raised the maximum from 74 to 78 seats, and at the Dubai show of November 2021 ATR unveiled the 72-600 with the new PW127XT, offering twenty per cent lower maintenance cost and three per cent lower fuel consumption than the PW127M.

Commercially the turboprop has sustained the company in a market dominated by regional jets. Orders set a programme record in 2007 with 113 aircraft sold in a single year, and by the end of 2014 ATR had booked 1000 orders for the type, delivered 754 and held a backlog of 246. Strong demand for the -600 series prompted investment in a second, more modern final assembly line, additional hangar space and a new completion and delivery area, expanding the Toulouse manufacturing operation to four times its 2005 footprint; in 2015 management spoke of building more than ninety aircraft a year with installed capacity for 120. Recorded production of the ATR 72 stands at 1233 aircraft, and Airbus retains fifty per cent of the venture, which has also studied re-engining as a bridge towards an eventual hundred-seat design.