ATR has announced its annual results for 2009, highlighting the fact that the goals it set for last year were all met despite the difficulties of the recession.
The airframer reported a turnover record of $1.4 billion in 2009, which is a new company record and shows 7% growth on 2008’s figure of $1.3 billion. Of this turnover, 69% came from new aircraft, 16% from customer support activities (including five new Global Maintenance Agreements) and 15% from asset management.
The company set a target to delivered more than 50 aircraft last year and exceeded this by four, the 54 aircraft being one down on the previous year. ATR recorded 40 new firm aircraft orders last year plus 17 options, with a 50:50 split between -500 Series and -600 Series aircraft. “Although I cannot be exact about our competitors’ final figure for last year, I believe our orders gave us about 70% of the market in 2009,” remarked ATR CEO Stéphane Mayer (pictured). The backlog now stands at 136 aircraft (four ATR 42-500s, five ATR 42-600s, 73 ATR 72-500s and 54 ATR 72-600s).
Mayer admitted that to deliver the 54 aircraft last year had meant “a lot of activity” as deferrals and cancellations were taken into account. “The by-word of 2009 was flexibility. Not all aircraft last year were delivered to the airline for which they were planned,” he noted.
Another target for last year was to reach the 1,000th aircraft sold since the beginning of the programme. Mayer reported that with the new orders and a few cancellations in 2009, “the orderbook stands at exactly 1,000 right now”. By 31 December 2009, ATR had delivered 864 aircraft (409 ATR 42s and 455 ATR 72s).
On the development of the -600 Series, Mayer declared that, following first flight of the ATR 72-600 and power-on for the ATR 42-600, the development of both models is on schedule. The 72-600’s certification is scheduled for the fourth quarter of this year with entry into service in the first half of 2011. The 42-600, due to fly this year, is to be certified by the end of 2011.
In setting the 2010 goals of at least matching the 2009 turnover, minimum 50 deliveries and minimum 40 firm orders, Mayer commented, “Despite the fact that we are starting to see some growth returning, we expect this year to be another one of uncertainty. Next year is likely to be similar too.”
Although the backlog remains high, there are still approximately 10 delivery slots available this year, from August onwards. “There are also about 20 of the -500 Series still to be sold,” remarked senior vice-president commercial, Jacques Desbarats.
In the used aircraft market, the portfolio currently stands at 37. Three aircraft are due to return to ATR this year and the target for 2010 is to sell 20 aircraft so that the portfolio is down to 20 by the end of the year. “The shareholders believe it is more important to be investing in strategic programmes rather than maintaining this portfolio,” explained Desbarats.
Bernie Baldwin, Editor, Low-Fare & Regional Airlines/LARAnews.net
Paris, France
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