News
ATRs popular with provincial Chinese start-ups
June 23rd 2017
Turboprop manufacturer, ATR, secured contracts with two Mainland Chinese customers at the Paris Air Show: Shaanxi Tianju Investment Group (Tianju) signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) for 10 ATR 42-600s to develop commuter services in China’s remote Xinjiang Province. Read More » Deliveries are expected to start “as soon as possible in 2018”.
Chairman of Tianju Group, Yang Qiang, said: “In responding to the Chinese government's strong intention to promote the General Aviation market, Tianju has made an intensive market study and identified Xinjiang as the ideal location to develop commuter service under General Aviation operations. We are convinced the specifically adapted ATR 42-600 will provide the best answer for this market segment. We are pleased to partner with the world's leading regional aircraft manufacturer to develop commuter service in Xinjiang and strongly contribute to China's 'Belt and Road Initiative.'"
ATR received another order for three ATR 42-600s from Xuzhou Hantong Aviation Development Co., a commuter carrier that will launch operations in Xuzhou in China’s Jiangsu Province. Deliveries also will begin “as soon as possible in 2018”.
Xuzhou Hantong general manager, Zhou Bingzen, said: “Under the Xuzhou local government's strategy to develop Xuzhou as a new cargo and regional aviation hub, Hantong is to focus on regional cargo and commuter services under general aviation, as there is a huge gap in both areas. Hantong is happy to have Reignwood Aviation, the renowned and experienced general aviation player in China, become the operations partner to jointly develop commuter services in eastern China.”
China has been a strategic partner and supplier for ATR for nearly 20 years. Xi'an Aircraft Industry Co. Ltd, a subsidiary of AVIC, provides fuselage sections and wing parts for ATR aircraft.
Regional aircraft make up 2.3% of the nearly 3,000 civil aircraft flying in China. But there is potential for the regional aircraft sector to grow if they serve some of the 100 small airports that account for 1.6% of all air traffic in China.
