Jens Flottau/MUNICH
Fairchild Aerospace and ATR are in final negotiations over a regional jet alliance and setting up a jointly owned company to market their regional jet and turboprop ranges.
The two are discussing development of the entire 528JET, 728JET and 928JET family along with joint marketing of the current products, the ATR turboprops, the Fairchild Dornier 328 and 328JET, as well as the Fairchild Metro. The arrangement could succeed the failed AI(R) deal with British Aerospace. Asset management and assets would remain separate entities.
Industry sources say that the hope is for a memorandum of understanding to be signed by the end of the month. A source at Fairchild Dornier confirms that both sides have agreed in principle on the design of the regional jet aircraft. ATR has backed off from the four-abreast proposal for its own Airjet 70 regional jet design, agreeing on the five-abreast layout planned for the 728JET.
The talks appear to centre on shares in the new entity. ATR wants a 33.3% division between Aerospatiale, Alenia and Fairchild Dornier, but according to sources, the latter is demanding a 50% stake. ATR is understood to have rejected Fairchild's demands, claiming that the European partners would contribute more critical mass and a far wider customer base into the alliance.
A Fairchild Aerospace source says it does not want French industrial politics to become an issue in the project. Fairchild says it has little interest in replacing Honeywell, which is contracted to supply avionics for the 728JET, with France's Sextant Avionique - a solution apparently preferred by ATR. Another major issue, final assembly, is unresolved. Fairchild wants to build the 728JET in Oberpfaffenhofen near Munich, but ATR has proposed Naples, which has "the most advanced final assembly facilities available".
Source: Flight International
