Kevin O'Toole/LONDON Andrea Spinelli/GENOA
ATR is on the verge of extracting its sales and marketing from Aero International (Regional) (AI(R)) and may move to abandon its two-year-old venture with British Aerospace.
The partners are to hold an initial meeting by 30 January to review the future of AI(R) following the cancellation in 1997 of the Airjet regional-jet programme. A decision on AI(R)is expected soon.
BAe will press for logistics and customer support of Avro and ATR products to remain linked within AI(R),but there are signs that the two ATR partners, Aerospatiale and Alenia, may push for a more fundamental break.
Aerospatiale chairman Yves Michot has already said that there is no longer a rationale for joint marketing in the wake of the Airjet cancellation. Sources in Alenia agree that marketing will not be shared, but all parties say that there is no agreement yet on the extent of the disentanglement.
"I think there are still long-term benefits on the customer-support side, but unless we're prepared to agree to work together, there's no point in continuing," says BAe commercial-aerospace chairman Mike Turner. He adds, however, that it is no longer "a big deal" for BAe if AI(R)is broken up.
The original AI(R)agreement, signed three years ago, initially brought together ATR and BAe sales teams in Toulouse, with spares consolidated in the UK. The next phase was to link production, but that hinged on developing the new 50- to 70-seat Airjet.
Despite apparent enthusiasm in France, BAe effectively refused to share in the regional jet's $1 billion development cost. Alenia sources also admit that the cash-strapped Italian company was privately happy to see the project dropped.
"We knew that it was the right decision, but the partners took a little longer to come around," says Turner. BAe has made it clear that its prime objective is to concentrate on Airbus while managing an orderly exit from the liabilities which it still holds on a massive fleet of RJ/BAe 146 regional jets and Jetstream turboprops. It has been holding down production levels at Avro, which is now at break-even, and had planned to put about £60 million ($100 million) a year into AI(R)to cover support.
ATR suggests that a further cause of contention hinged on BAe's talks with Malaysia over production for the RJ. The negotiations, signed in December, potentially give Malaysia's Kazanah state-investment vehicle a 50% share in Avro.
ATR sources suggest that BAe may try to offload the RJ programme, for which Boeing's 717, at a rumoured $18 million price, would be severe competition. "If that price is true, BAe may as well shut up shop," says one RJ customer.
Source: Flight International
