Single-engine turboprop manufacturers are eying new business in Europe with the recent decision by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to permit commercial single-engine turbine operations in instrument meteorological conditions (CAT SET-IMC). EASA earlier this month formally published regulations clearing the way for such operations in Europe.
“CAT SET-IMC will make it possible to develop new routes in Europe,” said Ignaz Gretener, vice president for general aviation at Pilatus, which manufactures the PC-12 turboprop single. “The decision bythe EASA provides an incentive for aircraft operators in Europe to replace older aircraft with new, safer, more environmentally friendly single-engine turbine aircraft such as the PC-12.”
The PC-12 fleet, which numbers nearly 1,500, has amassed more than six million hoursand has been in commercial IMC use for years in other parts of the world for missions such as cargo, medical transport and business flights, Pilatus noted. “We are confident that we will soon see a large number of additional PC-12s providing such service in Europe,” Gretener said.
TBM 900/930 maker Daher expressed similar expectations, noting the rule change opens a market that has been available in every major region except Europe. Daher’s TBM 850 was first used in such operations in Europe in 2013, but that was under a special exemption granted to French air-taxi Voldirect by France’s Direction Générale de l'aviation Civile (DGAC).
Based in western France at Rennes Bretagne Airport, Voldirect has since carried 2,100 passengers and logged 1,200 hours with the TBM 850. The carrier is planning to introduce a second TBM 850 at its new base in Lyon this spring and a third at a location yet to be announced.
In 2012 St. Barth Commuter became the first operator to obtain European approval for CAT SET-IMC, using a Cessna Grand Caravan 208B in the French Antilles.
The rule is helping to spur new entrants. St-Barth Executive is planning to operate a TBM 900 in the French Antilles. St-Barth Executive, based in the Caribbean island of Saint-Barthelemy, has applied for a French aircraft operator’s certificate.
“The determination and hard work of operators such as Voldirect’s Frédéri Caussarieu and Vincent Beauvarlet from Saint-Barth Executive, along with leadership of the DGAC and EASA in bringing regulatory change, have been paramount in convincing the European Union to allow commercial operations with single-engine turboprop aircraft,” said Nicolas Chabbert, senior v-p of Daher's airplane business unit. “We expect to see the TBM increasingly deployed in charters for on-demand transportation, especially from community airports, with operators benefitting from our aircraft family’s speed, economical operating costs and the ability to serve smaller runways.”
