ATR Says HighLine Premium Cabins Target Underserved Niche Rather Than Rival Business Jets

ATR says its HighLine luxury cabin range is not in direct competition with the traditional business jet or turboprop markets. Louis Barral, customer marketing manager for VIP Markets at ATR, said the company addresses dual-class, corporate, semi-private and governmental mobility needs, a niche he said is underserved by existing business aviation services. He described the objective as addressing an "emerging market opportunity" with cabin products that leverage the "inherent strengths" of ATR aircraft.

ATR was founded in 1981 as a joint venture between Aérospatiale (now Airbus) and Aeritalia (now Leonardo) and has delivered more than 1,700 aircraft across the ATR 42 and ATR 72 families. In 2023 it revealed four high-end cabin configurations: Dual-Class, Premium-Flex, All-Business and Governmental. For corporate customers, the company targets shuttle operations for larger passenger groups otherwise accommodated by a bizliner; for governmental customers it offers multi-section layouts for large delegations. Barral said ATR's core business remains commercial passenger regional transport and cargo.

Malaysian carrier Berjaya Air, alongside Air Tahiti, is pioneering the HighLine configuration. Berjaya took delivery of the first ATR 72-600 with an All-Business Class cabin in May 2026, with 26 seats in a one-by-one layout, and a second aircraft in the same configuration is due before year end. Public charter carrier JSX signed a letter of intent for up to 25 ATR aircraft in HighLine configuration at the 2025 Paris Air Show and began operating two ATR 42-600s in December last year. It now has four ATR aircraft, with plans to add more, and ATR says JSX's per-seat charter model partly inspired its luxury offering.

ATR is working with Airbus Corporate Jets (ACJ) on the premium cabins, including the X-Space Table, a seating solution that converts a standard dual economy seat into a single business class seat. It lets operators switch between full economy and business class layouts in a few minutes. Air Cambodia was announced as launch customer, with certification expected in Q1 2027. ATR says that in many cases it delivers a standard aircraft that is later modified through supplemental type certificates and Part 145 installations by approved external partners.

ATR's positioning reflects a broader move by regional aircraft manufacturers to sell cabin flexibility rather than raw aircraft performance. A turboprop that can run as a full economy airline cabin one week and a premium, per-seat or corporate shuttle the next sits between scheduled service and business aviation, which is why ATR frames it as a different market from bizjets rather than a substitute for them. The customers named so far are two airlines and a public charter operator, which suggests early demand is coming from carriers that already sell individual seats rather than from traditional corporate flight departments.

The delivery model matters for that segment. Retrofitting through supplemental type certificates and Part 145 installations by external partners keeps the base aircraft standard and pushes cabin work to approved shops, so lead times and aftermarket capacity will shape how quickly operators can reconfigure fleets. Convertible seating such as the X-Space Table only delivers the economy-to-business switch that ATR describes if it clears certification.

The next dated milestone is the certification of the premium cabins with launch customer Air Cambodia, expected in Q1 2027, followed by Berjaya's second All-Business ATR 72-600 before the end of this year. JSX's plan to add more aircraft beyond its current four would show whether per-seat charter economics extend past the first operators.