THE EUROPEAN Commission (EC) has approved the AIR joint venture between regional-aircraft manufacturers ATR and British Aerospace.
The decision clears the way for the consortium to create a joint marketing, sales and after-sales service for its existing range at Toulouse, France, as well as an integrated training centre at Naples, Italy. New aircraft will also be studied under what will eventually amount to an Airbus Industrie-like regional-aircraft consortium.
Six senior AIR executives are shortly to be announced, with three taken from British Aerospace, and three from ATR.
The EC's competition directorate, which ruled against a merger between ATR and Canada's de Havilland in 1991, found that AIR "...would not create a dominant group being the sole operator present in all market segments".
AIR will begin operations marketing the ATR 42, ATR 72 and Jetstream turboprops, along with the Avro regional jets. The question of Germany's participation in AIR will remain open, at least until the decision from China and South Korea on whether to pick a European or US partner to develop a 100- to 120-seat regional aircraft.
Source: Flight International
