The Renaissance of the Turboprop Regional Airliner Market

The commercial turboprop airliner market has seen significant fluctuations over the past decade. Initially there was great interest as regional airlines started to grow; the need for airlines to feed network airline hubs meant lots of opportunities. What had been essentially a 19-seat market rapidly grew into a 30-seat aircraft market and then into today’s ~70 seaters.

• We expect the turboprop passenger airplane to experience a renaissance.
• Within the United States airline consolidation is in full swing. Fewer airlines mean fewer choices and higher fares. This movement is likely to be mimicked elsewhere.
• As eloquently put forward by our colleague Doug Abbey in his report “Air Service to Small and Medium-Sized American Airports: Preparing for the Inevitable”:
• Between 2006 and 2010, 10 U.S. airports lost important scheduled air service links when their last small-jet flights were determined to be uneconomical by major carriers.
• Nearly 200 U.S. airports have lost all scheduled air service since airline schedules reached their peak in the mid-1980’s.
• We anticipate that at least 30 other U.S. airports face a similar risk. A majority of the local communities are simply too small or located too near alternative gateways to sustain small jet flying in the long-term. With relatively few 30 to 50-seat turboprop aircraft flying today which could theoretically be used to replace them - and larger capacity (70-plus seat) regional jets too financially risky to deploy in small markets - more local communities remain at-risk at losing their air service than ever.