Airlines seek greener, cost effective aircraft







As airlines around the world battle rising costs, falling revenues and pressure to become more environment-friendly, the turboprop airliner is again becoming fashionable in short-haul markets.
And for ATR Regional Aircraft, the world’s largest manufacturer of 40-70-seat turboprops, one of the regions of greatest potential is the South Pacific, where 30 of the company’s aircraft are already in service with seven operators.
That airlines of the Pacific are convinced of the merits of turboprops is not new. They are well-established users—indeed, the first ATR aircraft entered the region almost 25 years ago with Air Tahiti.
What is new is that when the next generation of ATR airliners—the series 600 family—enters commercial service, one of the first markets to be served will be the Pacific region, with Air Tahiti again at the forefront, having placed orders for five new aircraft.
Currently operating six 66-seat ATR 72-500s and four 48-seat ATR 42-500s, Air Tahiti has ordered two ATR 72-600 aircraft and three ATR 42-600s, all to be delivered by May 2013.
In addition to the series 600 aircraft orders, ATR delivered two new current—model ATR 72-500 aircraft in the Pacific—one to Air Tahiti and another to Air Vanuatu—during 2009.
And the manufacturer is confident that in the current economic climate, opportunities exist not only for more ATRs to enter the South West Pacific region, but for existing aircraft to take on new roles and potentially new routes.
“More than most markets, aviation is crucial to the economies of the Pacific,” said Guillaume Huertas, ATR Sales Director Australia and South Pacific.
 “With a high proportion of inter-island travel for business and leisure, and a large number of regional airports unable to accommodate jet aircraft, large turboprop airliners have long been essential elements of the local transport infrastructures,” said Huertas.
“Now, with leisure travel revenue heavily impacted by price competition between destinations and the airlines serving them, carriers throughout the Pacific are exploring better ways of doing business or new ways to maintain vital services while containing or reducing operating costs,” he said.
“Not only are our aircraft far more cost effective than regional jets or other large turboprops, they also enable carriers to maintain or build their operations with turboprop aircraft offering the same or better cabin comfort than jets, but with considerably less impact on the environment.”
Huertas said majority of the ATR aircraft flying in the region were currently deployed on domestic routes. But since introducing its ATR 72-500 last year, Air Vanuatu has commenced international services, linking its home base of Port Vila with Noumea in the neighbouring French Pacific territory of New Caledonia.
“Currently, the longest ATR flight sector in the world is operated by Air Tahiti, with a scheduled flight of 3 hours, 40 minutes between Papeete and Gambier Island—a distance of 1,650 kilometres,” said Huertas.
“With that proven capability in the Pacific region, the precedent has been set for all sorts of other opportunities, including more short to medium haul international services,” he said.
“Airlines could use ATRs to develop new domestic or international routes or to replace larger, less efficient aircraft on existing sectors. Certainly, there is no technical impediment to doing so, given the varied tasks the ATRs already perform around the region. We believe it could easily become the plane of the Pacific.”
To support the ATR operators in the Pacific, the company established a regional spare parts centre in Auckland, New Zealand, providing much faster access to replacement components than previously, when the nearest support centre was in Singapore.
In Europe, where the ATR family of aircraft is manufactured, the company recently compared its ATR 72-500 with a Bombardier Q400 turboprop and a 70-seat regional jet on the 277-kilometre sector between the French cities of Lyon and Marseille—comparable to some sector lengths in the Pacific.
The regional jet flew the route in 32 minutes, the Q400 took 36 minutes and the ATR 72-500 took 40 minutes—four minutes longer than the competing turboprop and eight minutes more than the jet.
However, while the ATR 72-500 consumed 526 kilogrammes of fuel, the Q400 used 778 kilogrammes (47 percent more) and the regional jet consumed 1,013 kilogrammes (92 percent more). As well, the ATR 72-500 saved five tons of fuel compared with the jet, and emitted 1.5 tons less carbondioxide into the atmosphere.
A separate comparison of a 68-seat ATR 72 with a 70-seat Q400 turboprop, 70 seat Bombardier  CRJ700 jet, a 70 seat Embraer 170 jet and a 78-seat Embaer 175 jet revealed that the ATR’sCO2 emissions per seat were up to 40 per cent less than comparably-sized regional jets and up to 25 per cent less than the nearest turboprop competitor.
“So not only does the ATR aircraft cost airlines less. It costs the environment less as well,” said Huertas. “Both of these factors are already important in the Pacific, but will become even more so in the future.”
In the South Pacific, the largest operator of ATR aircraft is Air New Zealand, with 11 ATR 72-500s flying regional and core domestic air routes.
Air New Zealand has declared that its aim is to become the greenest airline in the world, a commitment supported by initiatives including its industry-leading role in testing aviation biofuels.
Air Tahiti has 10 ATRs—six ATR 72-500s and four ATR 42-500s—and has demonstrated its continued confidence in the product by becoming one of the first in the world to order both the ATR 72-600 and the ATR 42-600.
In New Caledonia, Air Caledonie has three ATR aircraft—two ATR 72-500s and one ATR 42-500; Fiji’s Pacific Sun operates two ATR 42-500s on interisland tourism and business routes; Air Vanuatu last year upgraded from an older model ATR 72-300 to a new ATR 72-500; and the French Polynesian Government operates a VIP version of the ATR 42-500.
Additionally, Australia’s Toll Aviation operates two ATR 42-300 freighters on overnight flights around the eastern seaboard, visiting three state capital cities and one major regional airport.
In December 2009, the 30 ATRs of the Pacific operated a total of 5,608 flights, while for the whole of 2009, the combined utilisation of these aircraft (excluding the French Polynesian VIP plane) was an average 190 flights per day or 6.5 flights per aircraft, per day.
“Within the South Pacific region, and increasingly in neighbouring Asian markets, the turboprop is returning to prominence,” said Huertas.
“In doing so, it is not only making air services more economic, but more accessible to business travellers, leisure travellers and local communities,” he said.
“We are confident that even more opportunities will arise in the South Pacific region as carriers look to expand some operations now served by smaller turboprop aircraft, downsize other services from larger, less efficient jets to large turboprops or introduce completely new services, such as additional regional international flights or specialist tasks such as fly-in, fly out services to mining and other resources sites in markets including Australia.”