ATR 72
ATR · European Union · first flew 1988 · airliner
A high-winged twin turboprop, the ATR 72 is one of the world's most popular regional airliners for short, low-altitude hops.
Recognition (WEFT)
| W — Wings | High-mounted, straight |
|---|---|
| E — Engines | 2 × turboprop, wing-mounted |
| F — Fuselage | Tall stilt-like landing gear and long slender fuselage |
| T — Tail | T-tail |
WEFT is AircraftIQ's four-point recognition method — how it works.
Spot it by:
- High straight wing with two large turboprops
- T-tail with horizontal stabiliser atop the fin
- Tall stilt-like landing gear and long slender fuselage
The combination of a high straight wing carrying two big propellers, a tall T-tail and a long, slim fuselage on stilt-like legs is unmistakable. It is easily told from the rival Dash 8 by its T-tail (the Dash 8 has a conventional low-set tailplane) and from jets by its propellers and unswept wing.
Specifications
- The ATR 72 has a length of 27.17 m (89 ft).
- It has a wingspan of 27.05 m (89 ft).
- Its maximum speed is 511 km/h (318 mph).
- Typical crew: 2 flight crew.
Figures are for the representative variant described above; marks differ. See how AircraftIQ sources figures.
History
Developed by the Franco-Italian ATR consortium as a stretch of the ATR 42, the ATR 72 first flew in 1988. It carries roughly 70 passengers economically over short ranges, using fuel-sipping turboprops rather than jets. Successive versions, culminating in the modern -600, have kept it in continuous production.
Variants
The line runs through the -200, -500 and current -600, with progressively improved engines, avionics and cabins. The smaller ATR 42 shares the same configuration in a shorter fuselage, and a freighter version serves parcel carriers.
Where you'll see it
In UK skies ATR 72s serve regional and island routes, notably with Loganair linking Scottish and regional airports, and they appear on Channel Islands and Irish Sea services. Expect them on short domestic sectors where a jet would be uneconomic.
In depth
The current -600 variant refined an already mature design rather than reinventing it. Its Pratt & Whitney Canada PW127M engines offer a useful power reserve over the earlier -500, particularly in hot-and-high conditions, while the Armonia cabin brought a modernised interior with larger overhead bins and a lighter, brighter feel. The changes were evolutionary, aimed at operating economics and passenger comfort rather than performance headlines, which is entirely in keeping with the aircraft's role.
That role rests on a straightforward piece of economics. The turboprop remains genuinely viable on sectors under roughly 550 kilometres, where its lower fuel burn and lower purchase price outweigh the speed advantage of a regional jet, and its break-even passenger loads are modest enough to sustain thin routes that a jet could not fill profitably. On short island and regional hops the extra minutes a jet would save in the cruise are swallowed by the climb and descent anyway, so the propeller aircraft loses little time while costing far less to run, which is precisely why the type persists in markets others have abandoned.
At the fence the ATR 72 is separated from its smaller sibling, the ATR 42, chiefly by length. The 72 has a noticeably longer fuselage with more cabin windows and a different overwing exit arrangement, while the 42 is a stubbier aircraft with fewer rows; side by side the difference is obvious, and even alone the window count gives it away. One thing the ATR does not have is an active noise-cancellation system of the kind fitted to its principal turboprop rival, so its cabin is quieter than older designs only through conventional insulation rather than any electronic suppression.
The propellers themselves are a distinguishing feature. The ATR turns four-bladed Hamilton Sundstrand composite propellers, whose blade sweep and diameter give the aircraft its characteristic look and sound, and this four-blade arrangement is one of the quickest ways to tell it from the six-bladed propellers of the Dash 8 Q400. As a turboprop the ATR also retains a handling characteristic worth noting: in an engine failure the propeller can be feathered and, in the appropriate circumstances, the aircraft's propeller-driven design gives it benign low-speed behaviour that suits operations into short island strips, where controllability at low speed matters more than outright cruise performance.
In Britain the type reaches its highest concentration in the Scottish islands, where Loganair operates the ATR on services to Stornoway, Sumburgh, Kirkwall and Benbecula among others. On those routes the ATR displaced earlier contenders such as the Saab 2000 and the Jetstream, winning out on the combination of capacity, economics and short-field capability that the island network demands. The Saab offered speed but higher costs and a smaller cabin, and the Jetstream was smaller again; the ATR's roughly seventy seats hit the load the island routes needed while keeping the fuel bill low, and its rugged undercarriage and forgiving low-speed handling suited the short, weather-battered strips that define Highlands and Islands flying. For a spotter, the Highlands and Islands services are the place to see the aircraft doing exactly what it was designed for: shuttling modest passenger loads across short over-water sectors into small airfields, its four broad blades biting the air on a blustery approach, the whole operation a study in why the turboprop endures where the jet cannot follow.
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