With its advanced aerodynamics and elegant Italian styling, the Piaggio Aerospace P.180 Avanti has the stunning appearance of an aircraft from the future.

Today, about 220 P.180 Avanti aircraft are in service with corporate, charter, VIP, air ambulance, government and special-mission operators across six continents—North and South America, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa—and the fleet is expected to grow with Piaggio Aerospace's significant new investments in the EVO family and enhanced product support.

Conceived as a seven-passenger business turboprop that can fly at jet speeds, the Avanti (literally "forward" in Italian) broke with aeronautical tradition when it introduced a three-lifting-surface concept—consisting of forward wings, main wings and horizontal stabilizer—and twin counter-rotating pusher propellers.

Step inside and you'll see that the new P.180 Avanti EVO is taller, wider and quieter than other contemporary turboprops and even larger business jets, with a stand-up cabin 5 ft. 9 in. high and a width of 6 ft.

And Avanti engineers have designed the aircraft to land on short or even semi-prepared runways, thereby opening up thousands of local airfields that are inaccessible to larger aircraft.

What we have accomplished in the last three years would have taken a larger company more years to achieve,” says Renato Vaghi, CEO of Piaggio Aerospace.

Ninety percent of Piaggio Aerospace’s top-level management team was recruited in the past three years to enthusiastically drive innovation and a customer-focused culture change across the company.

In 2015–2016, Piaggio Aerospace’s airframe and engine manufacturing was transferred from two aging factories in Genoa and Finale Ligure to the Piaggio Aerospace Center of Excellence at Villanova d’Albenga airport about 43 mi (70 km) to the west.

The new facility features 538,195 sq ft (50,000 square meters) of factory and office space on a 31.4 acre (127,000 sq m) site.

The factory move allowed Piaggio to consolidate all its engineering and manufacturing activity under one roof and expand its lean manufacturing processes.

Third-Generation EVO

“The P.180 Avanti EVO is a unique turboprop that competes with jets,” says Vaghi. “It is a very good value proposition.”

The EVO is the fastest twin turboprop ever made and features improved aerodynamics, winglets, reshaped engine exhausts and an additional 60-U.S.-gallon fuel tank to give the aircraft 250 nm

additional range and a 3 percent lower fuel burn.

Piaggio Aerospace teamed with Hartzell Propeller Inc. to supply the EVO with new highly swept wide-chord aluminum alloy propellers that in conjunction with an RPM reduction from 2,000 to 1,800 (and changes to the nacelle and engine exhaust geometry) reduced external noise by 68 percent or five dBA and reduced interior cabin noise by 20 percent, or one dBA.

Inside and out, the EVO is one of the most environmentally friendly aircraft on the market today, burning 30 percent less fuel than similar-size jets, with reduced emissions and lower noise as well.

The first P.180 Avanti EVO completed at the new Villanova d’Albenga factory flew in August 2016 and was delivered to a Saudi Arabian customer at the Piaggio Aerospace plant at Genoa Cristoforo Colombo Airport.

In the United States, the first EVO entered service in the last quarter of 2016 with a charter and fractional operator based in California.

Listening to the Customer

Piaggio has been active in aviation for a century, with its longevity linked to loyal customers.

“We have a strong commitment to the Avanti family and we are working hard to provide an ever better ownership experience for our customers,” says Andrea Di Fede, head of Piaggio Aerospace’s customer service business unit.

“We have launched initiatives regarding our spare parts inventory to ensure it aligns with demand. We are also investing in changes to our service culture and in the implementation of modern demand planning systems that will help us anticipate parts requirements,” says Di Fede.

In the fourth quarter of 2017, a new customer relationship management (CRM) system is poised to be rolled out to customers with a new web portal that facilitates online ordering as well as a “tracking and tracing” feature to monitor the status of any order or inquiry.

Spare parts are available from Piaggio Aerospace's main distribution centers in Genoa, Italy, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, as well as from a growing number of factory-authorized service centers in the U.S., Europe and other countries.

Reducing Operating Costs

“During the last 12 months, we have taken initiatives to reduce maintenance costs,” says Vaghi.

A comprehensive nose-to-tail review of P.180 operating costs identified opportunities to increase the life of key systems and components to drive down direct operating costs.

For example, after Piaggio Aerospace selected Magnaghi Aeronautica as the new supplier of the landing gear for the EVO, it decided to make that landing gear retrofitable on the Avanti II. The Magnaghi landing gear costs roughly the same amount to buy and install as an overhaul of the original landing gear, but its higher 15-year overhaul interval results in a projected 50 percent cost savings.

Piaggio Aerospace is also working with Parker Aircraft's Wheel & Brake Division to develop alternate steel brakes. The brakes are intended to reduce the operating cost of the P.180 fleet for customers who are willing to trade a portion of the performance for better operating costs. The aircraft are currently equipped with lightweight carbon brakes.

Looking ahead, “We are also collecting field data and analyzing maintenance reports with the aim to eliminate overhauls, or significantly extend the time between them, on a number of eligible components so they can be replaced ‘on condition,’” adds Di Fede.

About 10 percent of the P.180 fleet is employed on high-utilization air ambulance missions primarily in Europe and the United States, where aircraft routinely log around 1,000 flight hours a year.

Aircraft operators with intense flight operations that require high aircraft availability can now transition from a traditional block-check maintenance program to a phased maintenance program that will allow tasks to be completed at 200 and 600 flight hour intervals during overnight stops or short periods on the ground. 

For medical missions, the pressurization system on the P.180 provides sea level pressure for flights up to 24,000 feet, which is ideal for critical patient transfers. 

Air ambulance providers can now order an EVO with an optional five-inch-wider cabin door that makes loading and unloading of stretcher patients even easier and faster.

Riviera Gateway

The western Liguria region contains elegant coastal towns once popular with English and Italian aristocracy of the 19th century as well as medieval castles high on mountain ridges overlooking the fertile valleys of the area.

Piaggio Aerospace recently partnered with the Villanova d’Albenga airport owners to expand the airfield—also known as the Riviera Airport—as a business aviation gateway to the Italian and French Riviera and especially Monaco, which doesn’t have an airport.

Earlier this year, a campaign was launched to have Riviera Airport officially recognized as a bi-national Italian/Monaco gateway since it is only a 20-minute flight by helicopter from Monte Carlo.