ATR 72 ATR 72-600F

Until the -600F, every cargo ATR 72 was a converted airliner. On 8 November 2017 ATR launched the first purpose-built freighter version, with 30 firm orders from FedEx plus 20 options. It flew on 16 September 2020 and was EASA certified by early December that year.

Compared with the airliner, the windows are removed, the floor is reinforced and a large forward cargo door is added through which seven LD3 containers fit. In December 2020 FedEx Express received the first of its thirty, operated by ASL Airlines Ireland between Paris Charles de Gaulle and the Czech Republic; the plan was to take six aircraft a year until 2025 and to fly later ones in the US and Latin America.

ATR forecast a market for 460 turboprop freighters — new-build or converted — over twenty years, the bet that justifies this version instead of continuing to convert used airframes.