aerobd.news : Lorenzo Guerini, the Italian Minister of Defence, hadannounced it last October, just after having signed the relevant Decree. Today, the much-awaited order has been eventually formalized:Piaggio Aerospace, the Italian aircraft manufacturer currently attending EBACE in Geneva (Switzerland), will provide the Italian Armed Forces with six new P.180 Avanti EVOs, which will add to the nine sold in October 2019 and currently under production.

“Today’s contract further improves the Company’s portfolio, just when the deadline for potential investors to submit the binding offers to purchase Piaggio Aerospace’s business assetsis approaching”, said Piaggio Aerospace’s Extraordinary Commissioner Vincenzo Nicastro. “Meanwhilewe are working actively on the private customers’ market,too, in order to consolidate their interest in our aircraft”.
The agreement- signed by the Directorate of Aeronautical Armaments and Airworthiness andMr Nicastro- is worth approximately 55 million euro and requires the Company to produce and deliver the six aircraftwithin the next two years. The new Avanti Evo’s will be provided with those technical upgradesthat had already been outlined in the previous contract and that are now in their very last stage of development or have already been fine-tuned by the Italian company’s engineers.

The purchase of these new Avanti Evo’spartially replaces the retrofitting of the eighteenP.180s currently in use by the Italian Carabinieri, Army, Navy and Air Force. This agreement brings Piaggio Aerospace’s Avanti Evo order portfolio to 17 units, while the total backlog amounts approximately to 446 euros million as of December 31, 2021.

Piaggio Aerospace designs, develops, manufactures and maintains aircraft, aircraft engines and structural components. Its history of innovation and progress started in 1884 in Genoa, Italy. A continuous commitment to research and development, combined with innovative design and style, leads the development of Piaggio Aerospace, one of the main players for executive turboprops, Unmanned Aerial Systems and Special Mission aircraft in the global market. The company operates from its aerospace center of excellence in Villanova d’Albenga, Italy, while its Customer Service Department is based in Genoa. In December 2018, the company entered the Extraordinary Administration procedure with the appointment of Vincenzo Nicastro as Extraordinary Commissioner. The same applied later to its subsidiary Piaggio Aviation.