Judging by figures released at a Paris press briefing on January 20, the waning resurgence of the commercial turboprop market has, if anything, resumed at a stronger pace than at any time since the segment began reclaiming lost ground from the regional jet market a half-decade ago, at least for Franco-Italian manufacturer ATR. In fact, the EADS-Alenia joint venture appeared to take a commanding lead over its only Western rival in the segment in both sales and back order totals last year.
ATR finished the calendar year with an order total of 80 airplanes and a backlog of 159. Meanwhile, Canada’s Bombardier announced orders for just 45 Q400s. Because Bombardier’s fiscal year ends on January 31, it released its last official Q400 status report after the last day of its third fiscal quarter, on October 31, at which time its backlog stood at just 67. Extrapolating its October 31 calendar-year-to-date delivery total of 42 to roughly four airplanes per month and considering a 15-aircraft order from India’s SpiceJet in December, Bombardier would have finished the calendar year with a backlog of about 74 airplanes.
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