ATR issued a statement in response to a media report about the company’s intent to set up a final assembly line in India to support its customers.
India is already the second largest market for the European plane maker after Indonesia with around 70 ATR-72 and ATR-42 aircraft serving IndiGo, Alliance Air and FLY91.
“Our priority is to reinforce our presence in India, ensuring we provide the market with the right level of support, proximity and responsiveness. We remain flexible in how we scale up to best serve our customers across the region, provided it makes strategic and commercial sense. While we continue to explore all possible avenues to expand our capacity in the future, this would come as an addition to our existing production capability,” ATR said in a statement.
ATR, which is a joint venture of Airbus and Leonardo, has a final assembly line in Toulouse in France. Last year ATR received orders for 60 aircraft from nine airlines globally and delivered 32 planes.
In India, IndiGo and FLY91 inducted an ATR-72 aircraft each in 2025. FLY91 has inducted another two planes last month taking its fleet count to six.
According to an industry executive, any decision to set up a final assembly line would hinge on large aircraft order from India.
As of December end IndiGo had 46 ATR-72 aircraft compared to 48 a year earlier. The airline is not replacing aircraft that are exiting its fleet on expiry of lease terms. There have been no large orders from Indian operators either.
ATR however remains optimistic about its prospects. Its latest market forecast anticipates a need for 210 new turboprop planes in India by 2044 driven by expansion of regional connectivity.
The union government earlier this week extended the Udan ( Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) scheme by 10 years with an allocation of nearly ₹29,000 crore. The funds would go towards construction of 100 airports, 200 helipads, operation and maintenance support for airports and viability gap funding for airlines.
“India’s aviation growth will come from smaller cities, shorter sectors and an increasingly cost-sensitive passenger base. Demand already exists but is largely tapped today by road and rail. Our analysis shows that this growth cannot be sustainably unlocked without turboprops,” Alexis Vidal, ATR’s senior vice president (commercial) said in January.
Published on March 29, 2026