It is all smiles in the sunny south Florida city of Fort Lauderdale for aircraft manufacturer ATR and Silver Airways as they announce a deal for up to 50 brand new aircraft.
The deal worth a whopping $1.1billion, will see Silver Airways become the North American launch customer for the sleek ATR 42-600 series turboprop. The agreement includes a firm order of 20 ATR 42-600s plus options for another 30 aircraft. Silver Airways will also have the option of upgauging the aircraft to the new bigger ATR 72-600 should it require more capacity in the future.
Deliveries of the first four ATR42-600's are due to start around October this year, subject to regulatory approvals. The remaining 16 turboprops are then planned to arrive by the first quarter of 2020.
The new technologically advanced turboprops will be used to replace Silver Airways existing fleet of 21 Saab 340B and will be configured with 46 seats in a 2-2 layout offering up to 32inch seat pitch and represents a huge advancement for the airline.
“Thanks to our incredibly dedicated and hardworking team, this aircraft acquisition is a monumental leap forward for Silver, and will allow us to expand our network with a greater reach across the Caribbean and south-eastern US. Silver is honoured to partner with ATR as its North American launch customer for these technologically advanced aircraft.” said Jason Bewley, President and CFO of Silver Airways. The airline says this order is the next phase of its strategic development and believes it will help the airline reach its long-term goal of becoming a major US airline.
ATR have confirmed they will also handle the crew training which will be undertaken at their new multi-million-dollar facility in Miami which is equipped with a -600-series full flight simulator. The manufacturer hopes this will be the start of many more orders for the new 600 models from North and Central American airlines.
Jason Shaw
You may reproduce this article free of charge on condition you include a credit and a link back to this site. Thank you.