The recent run of big orders for new turboprops has no doubt lifted the spirits of the two remaining builders of prop-driven airliners. In an industry segment that has seen nothing but contraction over the past decade, new business of the magnitude of Air Deccan’s 30-aircraft order for ATR 72s and Bombardier’s pair of recent orders for 27 Q400s from Flybe and Qantas harks back to the days when turboprops held absolute dominion over the regional aircraft market. If nothing else, it certainly validated claims that OEMs can occasionally still sell a case for large-scale turboprop operations, at least outside North America.
Could the spike in sales wind up being an isolated string of events? Perhaps. But even in the U.S. a quiet re-assessment of short-haul markets has raised faint signs of encouragement for companies such as Saab and BAE Systems, which, although out of the civil manufacturing business, still make a modest living leasing and shuffling around used equipment.
