"Greener, more economical." This is how Stéphane Mayer, president of ATR, describes the ATR twin-turboprop aircraft during the presentation in Toulouse of a new version of this Franco-Italian regional aircraft with 50 to 74 seats. A few structural modifications with more composite, an optimization of the Pratt & Whitney engines, a latest generation Thales avionics allow an estimated operating gain of 5% compared to the existing ATR 42/72 models, in particular thanks to the possibility of all-weather automatic landing term. The ecological gain is reflected on the one hand by less CO2 linked to the reduction in fuel consumption (2,4 liters of fuel per passenger per 100 km compared to 2,8), and on the other hand by a lower noise of 30 dB compared to the authorized values for this category of airplanes.
The range of the joint venture EADS-Aliena had nearly died out in the mid-1990s with the craze for jets, attractive in the era of cheap fuel. A 70-seat ATR consumes 695 kg of fuel per hour compared to 1.400 kg for a jet of the same capacity. At current kerosene prices, that's $ 2,3 million in annual savings (and thousands of tons of CO2 less) for a companion device. "For the passenger, the speed difference is imperceptible", underlines Patrick Gandil, Director General of Civil Aviation, who came to attend the in-flight presentation of the new ATR which qualifies it "as an aircraft suitable for all destinations inaccessible by TGV ". The time difference compared to a twin-jet is of the order of five more minutes of flight for a 40% lower operating cost. Royal Air Maroc will receive the first ATR 72-600 by June. In the catalog, the plane costs $ 21,3 million, or 800.000 more than the previous version but carries 500 kg more.
The success of ATRs like its competitors Dash 8 from Bombardier has caused a redistribution of the aeronautical landscape of regional transport. The jets of less than 70 seats too greedy for short connections (800 to 1.000 km) are leaving the regional market. The aircraft manufacturers - Embraer with the E 170-190, Sukhoï with the SuperJet, Bombardier with the CRJ 1000 - now offer jet aircraft between 70 and 120 seats. They offer the performance of medium haul (up to 4.000 km) like the Boeing 737s and the Airbus A 320s, but with less seat capacity. A valuable tool in times of crisis that will also clear lines when growth returns.
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