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A Danish Air Transport (DAT) ATR 72 takes off from Copenhagen Airport.
Scheduled and wet-lease operator Danish Air Transport (DAT) is looking to acquire used Airbus A320s and ATRs for fleet renewal.
DAT’s fleet comprises nine ATR 42s and 10 ATR 72 models, plus five A320s and one A321. The business is split roughly 50:50 between scheduled ATR operations and Airbus/ATR wet-lease work.
“We are looking at fleet renewal,” DAT CEO Jesper Rungholm told ATW on the sidelines of the European Regions Airline Association (ERA) general assembly in Belfast. “We are buying anything [ATRs and Airbuses] that comes up with the right price tag.”
Rungholm is only looking at used aircraft, and “certainly” looking to buy a couple of younger ATRs over the coming year.
“We have a number of very old aircraft [ATRs] that need to be retired in the next three to five years,” he said. “We may actually have the oldest ATR in the world, in production serial number 36.”
DAT recently returned one of its Airbuses to the lessor in June, then bought the aircraft, returning its Airbus fleet to six aircraft. However, a pair of A320s will be retired over the next two years and these will need replacing. If well-priced A321s come up, DAT could opt for the larger variant.
“Let's put it this way: If somebody comes with an aircraft that is really really nice and the price is absolutely perfect, we'll buy it whether we need it or not,” Rungholm said.
Beyond this, Rungholm has no plans to expand the fleet. “We're not looking to grow,” he said. “We are quite happy as it is, but we need fleet replacement.”
When DAT’s aircraft reach end of life, the teardown is performed in house. “Everything gets reused,” he said. “There's almost nothing left once we're done with the airplane.”
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