At face value, the ATR 72 twin turboprop regional airliner on display at LABACE show this week is not an obvious fit among the purpose-built executive jets, but ATR vice president of sales Pier Luigi Baldacchini is looking to present the aircraft as a serious business tool that can offer companies a highly cost-effective transportation solution.

So why a turboprop not a jet? “For trips of up to a hour or an hour-and-a-half, it’s as fast as a jet,” said Pedro Paulo Valverde Pedroso Junior, whose firm Star is assisting ATR at the show. He extolls the unbeatable economy and environmental friendliness of the ATR, with its low fuel consumption. The aircraft on display is a quick-change version, which means it has a reinforced floor for possible heavy-duty utility operations. For the show, 32 of its economy airline seats were removed and replaced with eight “business” seats, separated from the 40 remaining coach seats with a partition (not yet aviation certified). It was not a particularly refined configuration, but it illustrated the concept nicely.

Just as a presidential aircraft will include private space and an area to carry journalists and aides, ATR is showing the aircraft as a way of offering similar differentiation for a less exalted market. “When a governor travels in a [Beechcraft] King Air, there may be half a dozen small aircraft going along with aides and such. An ATR in this configuration offers the same possibility of carrying everyone in one aircraft, while still affording privacy for meetings,” according to Baldacchini.

Also, ATR believes that the twin turboprop is a winning proposition as a corporate shuttle. Junior noted the example of a construction firm that had transported workers for an hour or two over roads to job sites. “You pay the worker as soon as he gets on the bus. You pay time, you pay overtime, you lose work. What’s time worth?” Star performed an analysis for the firm, which bought an ATR, and retired its fleet of 60 buses.