Page 12 - AAA MARCH - MAY 2022 Online Magazine

INTERVIEW ATR

prior to the pandemic. This is not only due to inadequate road
infrastructure, but also to heighted awareness about health and
safety resulting from the pandemic: people feel it is safer to fly on
an aircraft – where you have assigned seating– than to be sitting
on a crowded bus.”

Edited excerpts from the interview.

What are the market trends that ATR is observ-
ing regards the RTA market?
There is a shift in the working environment. Especially in Europe
but also in Asia Pacific, we see some people moving away from city
centers. This is because more and more people are now remote
working or working from home, so this has led some people to live
somewhere else in search of more comfort such as bigger living
spaces. For example, I know a gentleman who lived in Bangkok and
then moved to Koh Samui for a few months. The move is made
possible, because if he needs to get to Bangkok, he can by flying
on a regional turboprop aircraft. So, this is kind of a new dynamic
and changes that have happened due to COVID-19.

Another trend that we observe is that because of the restrictions on
international air travel, some airlines are putting greater emphasis
and focus on developing their domestic air network. Travelers that
On an in the past may have gone a long-haul flight overseas for a holi-
day, are now opting for a domestic vacation where they are most
likely to be flying on a regional aircraft. In Australia, we have seen
QantasLink launching new regional routes to help drive and tap
the growth in domestic tourism. In New Zealand, Air New Zealand
Upward already had a very extensive domestic regional turboprop route
network, so the growth has not been so much from creation of
new routes but increases in passenger loads as New Zealanders
switched to domestic tourism.
Another trend too is that some airlines and operators are rebuilding
Curve their network and replacing bigger aircraft with smaller capacity
aircraft so they can better match capacity with demand. If passen-
ger demand is lower on certain routes, airlines can maintain their
network and frequency by ‘right-sizing’ to ATR aircraft that have
a much lower fuel burn and trip cost. Achieving lower trip cost is
important in the current climate where some airlines have become
more risk adverse and need to manage cash-flow.
ATR is witnessing very strong interest in Asia
Pacific markets for regional turboprop air- What are the latest updates related to the ATR
craft. These aircraft have found favour in the 42-600S?
region, due to passenger preferences towards The programme is moving along very well. Although we have had
the greater convenience and time saving that to slightly readjust our development schedule due to COVID-19
commercial air transport offer over land-based constraints, we have successfully passed a major step in aircraft
transport. development, called ‘Maturity Gate 7’, which means that the air-
craft design is frozen, the expected performance is confirmed, and
In some markets the shift in mobility from industrialisation has begun. The first flight is scheduled for 2023,
land-based transport to air-based transport and the first deliveries for end of 2024 or beginning of 2025.
is accelerating during the pandemic, Jean-
Pierre Clercin, ATR head of commercial in We are actively promoting this product to operators and see this
Asia Pacific tells Atul Chandra in an interview. new variant of ATR as a way to expand the customer base while
“A notable example is Nepal where there is meeting the needs of operators that want an aircraft that can land
more domestic air travel today than there was and take off from runways as short as 800m. This superior STOL

12 March_May 2022 WWW .GBP .COM.SG/ AAA