India will soon become the biggest market for ATR...

For ATR, India is one of the most important market and it projects to have additional 50-150 aircrafts in next decade in this region. In an exclusive interview, Jean Pierre Clercin, Head of commercial, ATR in APAC Region, shared his thoughts on various perspectives with Vishal Kashyap, Managing Editor, Aviation World. Excerpts...

Q: What is the current outlook of ATR for the Indian market in terms of number of orders and focus for the future as well?

A: Asia Pacific is our largest market today and of course in the South Asia in particular is coming forward and its going to be the largest one. If you look at our customer base in India, we have IndiGo that has today 45 aircrafts that should come up to 50 this year. We have Alliance Air that has 20 ATRS including 2 ATR 42 and then we have a newcomer called Fly91 that's out of Goa and that has taken 2 aircraft from a leasing company based out of Dubai. So today, if you look at the position, there will be over 70 aircraft within the next 12 months.

Q: What makes ATR perfect fit for regional connectivity both in terms of operations and economics?

A: So there are a few things. I think first, the aircraft in terms of its capacity for takeoff and landing can actually operate out of very simple runways and airports. It doesn't require a lot of GSE to maintain. I mean, people can embark, disembark from the stairs. There is a built-in, if you want, power unit. It's very independent in that sense and you can land and take off on runways of down to 1200 meters at full load. Of course, it depends on temperature and this kind of things. But! mean, that's the ballpark.

And of course, the ATR 42 has even better performance. It's actually right above 1000 meters. And you probably heard we have this 42-600 STOL, that's going to come up into service next year, which will be able to operate on the runway down to 800 meters.