Limited potential production of this model, but once the tech is proven, why not upscale? Perhaps that is the end game?
There still seems to be customer interest and orders confirmed. Enough to break even? Who knows. But enough that Leonardo think it worth moving forward with. Perhaps the 15 pax AW709 (I'm making that up!) will sell more frames and offset the losses (if any) from the AW609 program.
Kind of like how the 189 borrowed a lot from the 139 (as did the 169).