ATR

Through the 1960s and 1970s the European aircraft industry reorganised itself by merger and, above all, through multinational programmes such as the Airbus A300. Within that current, France's Aérospatiale and the Italian conglomerate Aeritalia began discussing the joint development of an all-new regional airliner; both had been studying their own concepts separately since 1978, the AS 35 on the French side and the AIT 230 on the Italian. On 4 November 1981, Aeritalia chairman Renato Bonifacio and Aérospatiale chairman Jacques Mitterrand signed a formal Cooperation Agreement in Paris that merged not only their efforts but their two concepts into a single design to be developed and built as a joint venture. The target was demanding: a unit cost similar to that of its 40- to 50-seat competitors — the British Aerospace HS.748 and the Fokker F.27 — but burning about 430 kg of fuel over a 370 km sector, practically half the 790 kg those types required. The agreement was at once the origin of the company and the launch of its first aircraft, the ATR 42, and by 1983 its customer services division was already in place.

The first ATR 42-200 made its maiden flight on 16 August 1984 from Toulouse Airport. In September 1985 it was certified by the French Directorate General for Civil Aviation and the Italian civil aviation authority, and on 3 December that year the first production aircraft, an ATR 42-300, was delivered to the French carrier Air Littoral, which flew its first revenue service the same month. In January 1986, already confident of the type's success and of demand for a larger version, the company launched the ATR 72, its designation reflecting the increase in capacity. Progress was quick: the 200th ATR went to Thai Airways in 1988, and in September 1989 the firm announced it had met its original target of 400 sales, the same year deliveries of the 72 began. Ordering both models together soon became common practice, and because the ATR 42 is assembled on the same line as its bigger sibling and shares most subsystems and manufacturing techniques with it, the two types sustain each other: by 2015 the ATR 42 was the only 50-seat regional aircraft still in production.

To hold off the competition, the family received continuous upgrades. The original ATR 42-300 and the -320, with more powerful PW121 engines, were built until 1996; there was also a quick-change freight and passenger version. The next major variant, the ATR 42-500, was announced on 14 June 1993, flew on 16 September 1994 and was certified in July 1995 by the British and French authorities, with PW127 engines, six-bladed propellers, better hot-and-high performance, higher weights and a refreshed cabin; the first example went to Italy's Air Dolomiti on 31 October 1995 and entered service on 19 January 1996. Delivery milestones mark the rhythm of those years: the 300th ATR went to Finland's Karair in September 1992, the 500th to American Eagle on 5 September 1997, the 600th to Air Dolomiti on 28 April 2000 and the 700th to India's Simplify Deccan on 8 September 2006. In 2001 EADS and Alenia Aeronautica reinforced their partnership by regrouping all their regional airliner activity under the consortium, and on 2 October 2007 chief executive Stéphane Mayer launched the -600 series, with PW127M engines, a glass cockpit and many efficiency and reliability improvements; the ATR 42-600 prototype flew on 4 March 2010.

The 2010s confirmed the manufacturer's grip on its niche: the 900th aircraft was delivered to Brazil's TRIP on 10 September 2010, Royal Air Maroc received the first ATR 72-600 in 2011 and the 1,000th aircraft went to Spain's Air Nostrum on 3 May 2012. There followed a contract with Iran Air for 40 ATR 72-600s in February 2016, delivery of the 1,300th ATR in June of that year and of the first 72-600 in high-capacity configuration, with 78 seats, to Cebu Pacific. At the end of October 2018 the 1,500th aircraft was handed over, a 72-600 for Japan Air Commuter, after nearly 500 ATR 42s and more than 1,000 ATR 72s spread across more than two hundred operators; that year output was 76 aircraft and the company led the regional turboprop market with a 75 per cent share. Since May 2022 it has been studying the Evo variant, with mild electric hybridisation for take-off and climb, eight-bladed propellers, thermal de-icing and a lighter cabin, aiming to cut fuel burn by about a fifth; on 21 June that year it completed its first flight fully powered by sustainable aviation fuel. In November 2024 it dropped the development of a version able to operate from very short runways in order to concentrate on its existing range, and in March 2026 it was reported that Airbus was assessing the feasibility of an ATR final assembly line in India.