ATR has turned its attention to the U.S. market for its 600 series turboprop after several years of absence from scheduled service. As if to underscore the seriousness of its new marketing effort, it brought an ATR 72-600 demonstrator to the Regional Airline Association convention in Charlotte this week, where CEO Patrick de Castelbajac spoke with AIN about the prospects for the airplane in the U.S. and beyond.

De Castelbajac, a former executive with Airbus in charge of the U.S. market, knows North America well, and harbors no illusions about the challenge a return of ATR to the region presents.

“My experience with the U.S. airlines are they are very pragmatic people, they’re very rational people,” said de Castelbajac. “We didn’t get a sufficient focus on the U.S. for a long time...When you have so much growth [in other parts of the world] and the U.S. doesn’t necessarily welcome you with open arms, you go to all the other places where people are asking you to come.”

In fact, ATR has now sold more airplanes in Asia than in Europe, and holds a 90 percent share of the turboprop market in the Far East. Recently, growth has slowed somewhat, however, giving ATR another reason to prepare for a future that includes a presence in the biggest market in the world.

ATR has already addressed one clear prerequisite, as de Castelbajac explained, for attracting U.S. business in an offering for a front passenger entrance, allowing access through jet bridges. It also has put more emphasis on multi-class cabins, another requirement of many potential U.S. customers.  

“The market here is very demanding in terms of comfort, so we also need at least two-class, sometimes three-class, which is something that we were not necessarily keen on doing,” said de Castelbajac. “But we understand that it’s not a matter of whether we are keen or not keen, it’s a market requirement.”

Half owned by Airbus and half owned by Leonardo Finmeccanica, ATR enjoys access to engineering resources and supplier relationships from the European consortium in particular that competitors do not, giving the ATR 42 and 72 what de Catelbajac described at cutting edge technology in the cockpit as well.  

“When Airbus invests billions into a system, we can benefit from part of this without investing what we would normally invest if we were a third party,” explained de Castelbajac.

The new Thales flight deck in the 600 series ATRs and, of course, modern, quieter Pratt & Whitney PW127M engines represent two of the big differences between what the company offers today compared with the typical turboprop now flying in the U.S., which averages some 21 years of age. Meanwhile, as airlines jettison aging, less efficient regional jets and drop many of the routes on which they used to fly, ATR sees an opportunity to market both its 50-seat ATR 42-600 and 70-seat ATR 72-600 for segments of less than 300 nautical miles, where block time differences between a jet and turboprop are negligible.

“There are five destinations from Charlotte that people fly to several times a day that are less than 100 miles from Charlotte,” said de Castelbajac. “So that means basically you’re talking 20-minute flights, and we would do them in 23 minutes except we burn 60 percent less fuel.”

Support preparations include plans for a new U.S. pilot training center to open by next February. ATR hasn't yet decided on the location, but southern Florida appears a likely option given its North American headquarters and warehouse presence in Miami, said an ATR spokesman.