TOULOUSE, France---As announced during the Asian Aerospace air show, the European consortium ATR (Avions de Transport Régional) has received an additional order for 1 new generation ATR 72-500 from its long time French Polynesian customer Air Tahiti.
The airline already operates a fleet of 8 ATR 500s (4 ATR 42-500s and 4 ATR 72-500s) on its inter-island network. The additional ATR 72-500 will be delivered in September of this year.
The ATR fleet operated by Air Tahiti has an average age of 2,5 years with an average daily utilization of 6 hours. Air Tahiti's annual traffic is of 700 000 passengers which consists of 70% local passengers and 30% international tourists.
Since 1980 air traffic in the Polynesian archipel has been increasing at an annual rate of 10 to 15% as a result of hotel development on the islands as well as of a boost in the local economy.
Air Tahiti was also the first airline to receive the ETOPS certification on the ATR 72. The airline's network includes 38 islands scattered over the full dimension of French Polynesia. The shortest route is 15km (Tahiti-Moorea) and the longest 1600km (Tahiti-Mangavera).
According to Christian Vernaudon, President of Air Tahiti, the ATR is well adapted to the inter-island flights. The reliability, easy maintenance, high comfort and low operating costs are the reasons for our ATR choice."
Jean-Michel Leonard, Chief Executive Officer of ATR, is " proud with this new proof of confidence by Air Tahiti who has become a reference for ATR amongst its customers ; the development of Air Tahiti being entirely based on the ATR family of products. Thanks to its reliability and its low operating costs the ATR has become the main means of transportation in a region bigger than Europe."
In the Asia and Asia Pacific region ATR has currently 13 operators for a total of 72 aircraft (10 ATR 42s and 62 ATR 72s).
With this new order, ATR has sold 663 aircraft (370 ATR 42s and 293 ATR 72s). Today 107 airlines operate the ATR in 72 countries around the world.
