Aircraft
As Airplanes Age, ATR Sees Europe Returning to Fold
ATR anticipates achieving sales growth in Europe as carriers there turn to turboprops to renew their fleets.

Making his first appearance at a European Regions Airline Association conference since assuming the top executive spot from the outgoing Filippo Bagnato, new ATR CEO Patrick de Castelbajac issued a predictably upbeat assessment of his company’s performance of late during a press briefing in Barcelona on October 1. Now holding, by its reckoning, an 80-percent share of the 70- to 80-seat turboprop airliner market, ATR expects a renewed emphasis on Europe following its encouraging sales over the past few years in Asia, whose operators now fly the highest numbers of the Franco-Italian turboprops of any region in the world.