Originally Posted by
WHBM
There were a range of competing larger twin turboprops which came out in the 1980s-90s, most didn't succeed. There was a belief that because of seat-mile costs airlines would prefer them to jets. That hadn't happened with the Vanguard 30 years before and it wasn't going to happen now.
The thing that really killed it for all the turboprops was the development of the Embraer and Canadair regional jets, both from non-established manufacturers in the sector so that nobody took them seriously until it was too late. Even those who bought the turbos moved on quite quickly, and the ATP was particularly afflicted by this.
I think that's a bit of an oversimplification. Thirty years on, both the Dash 8 and ATR family are doing OK, with 2,500 or so sales between them, whereas the original 50-seat regional jets (Canadair RJ100, Embraer ERJs) did indeed prove uneconomic and, ultimately, unattractive to the airlines until replaced by stretched variants or new developments such as the E-jets.
But you are correct in your assessment that, compared to its contemporaries, the ATP was a dog.
