Filippo Bagnato is clearly delighted to be back at the helm of ATR. When he first took the chief executive's job, for three years from 2004, the situation at ATR was, he says, "quite critical". Annual sales were in single digits, and the goal then was to recover quickly and restore market confidence in the brand.
Today, following Stéphane Mayer's 2007-10 stint in the driver's seat, he takes over a company that boasts a 58% share of the turboprop market it shares with rival Bombardier and is on track to notch up about 50 sales in 2010.
His reappointment, he stresses, underscores a market message of continuity, especially as he was chairman during the Mayer years, a period when he also served as executive vice-president of technical, industrial and commercial development of Finmeccanica, the parent of Alenia Aeronautica, ATR's joint venture partner with EADS.
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And, he says, it is also "a pleasure and honour" to again play with the company he calls "an agile sportscar" - while keeping it on the road.
With around 850 ATR aircraft in service today, the current rate of 50 or so deliveries a year should see ATR through the 1,000 aircraft barrier during Bagnato's current tenure. He hints at the possibility of a "significant" announcement at Farnborough, but is regardless optimistic about the future of the turboprop business.
Given the type's fuel economy advantages over jets, he notes that while rolling forecasts put the turboprop share of the regional aircraft market at 15% in the 2000-20 period, that forecast now stands at 40% for the 2010-30 period.
He is optimistic that the US market could become an important one for ATR. Half of flights there are regional, he notes, so the economics of turboprop operation should give ATR an opening in the aircraft replacement market.
The USA will not be a growth market for regional aircraft, says Bagnato, but on other continents - "don't forget Africa" - the prospects for rising sales are obvious.
For ATR, the top priority is certification of the -600 range, for first delivery - possibly to Royal Air Maroc - in the second half of 2011. Work is under way on a larger aircraft in the 90- to 100-seat range, but Bagnato says he has no idea when a programme may be launched.
More immediately, he says the situation has become clear as to whether an ATR-Embraer alliance is on the cards. Embraer, he says, is working on its jet ranges and is simply not considering the development of a new turboprop. "Two players are more than enough."
- All the latest news, video and images from the 2010 Farnborough air show - New this year, live streaming video of each day's flying display
Source: Flight Daily News
