ATR looks to expand in Chinese regional aircraft market

ATR, a French regional aircraft manufacturer that makes aircraft with less than 90 seats, announced it will re-enter the Chinese market and will set up a new representative office in Beijing on Wednesday at the 2015 China Aviation Expo in Beijing.

The joint venture between Airbus Group and Alenia Aermacchi is increasing its personnel in the Beijing office by four to five people to support the business in China this year.

ATR is also talking with some Chinese airlines about orders at present, but further details are not yet available, said John Moore, global sales general manager of ATR.

There are no ATR aircraft flying in China at present, as the regional aircraft market in China is still underdeveloped, Moore said, although ATR has had Chinese suppliers for over 20 years.

"China offers enormous potential for regional air transport, especially in second and third tier cities," he said.

Only 6 percent of the Chinese fleet are regional airplanes with less than 100 seats, which means a lot of market space for ATR, Moore said.

ATR has a 35 percent market share of the global regional aircraft market.

Asia has become ATR's top region in terms of activity and almost half of its sales were in the Asia-Pacific region in the past several years, Moore said.

More than 350 ATR aircraft are in operation by 55 airlines in the Asia-Pacific region.