Soaring fuel costs and growing environmental concerns have led to an unlikely revival of demand for turboprop aircraft.

For many years the propeller aircraft suffered from sharply falling sales, as the perception grew among passengers that they were noisier and less comfortable than jets.

The regional jets, which began to emerge in particular in the early 1990s, first from Canada’s Bombardier and then from Embraer of Brazil, threatened to take over the fleets of many regional carriers, as the preference of passengers to fly in jets became ever stronger.

Production of turboprops plunged, several aircraft makers ceased production, in effect leaving two companies to dominate the dwindling market: Bombardier and ATR (Avions de Transport Régional), a Franco-Italian joint venture between EADS and Finmeccanica.

During the past four years the fortunes of these two groups’ turboprop businesses have been transformed, however, as demand has risen, driven in particular by the need for airlines to reduce both fuel consumption and emissions of carbon dioxide. Turboprops have been able to underline their status as the most fuel-efficient aircraft in the market.

According to ATR on a journey of some 200 nautical miles the fuel consumption per passenger of a larger turboprop aircraft is about 15 per cent less than a standard European car and up to 60 per cent less than a 70-seat jet.

Last year, orders for new turboprop aircraft booked by Bombardier and ATR greatly exceeded sales of regional jets in the market segment for 50- to 70-seat aircraft. The European group says turboprops have won 61 per cent of regional aircraft orders in the past three years in the 20- to 90-seat segment, compared with 39 per cent taken by regional jets.

The two manufacturers believe the revival can only strengthen in coming years, given the increasingly daunting economics of the airline industry in the face of record oil prices. Turboprops offer the lowest trip and seat costs for short routes. They have particular advantages on services that are too thin in terms of traffic to be operated profitably by regional jets.

Both Bombardier and ATR are considering larger aircraft. Improvements in turboprop technology have also closed the comfort gap with jets, helping reduce noise in the cabin, as the makers have sought to overcome customer resistance to flying in propeller aircraft.

The turboprop makers have also been able to shrug off the impact of a series of three accidents last autumn involving early versions of the Bombardier Q400 in the fleet of SAS Scandinavian Airlines – all arising from problems with the landing gear – which gave uncomfortable echoes of safety concerns that emerged about turboprops in the early 1990s.

SAS took the highly unusual action of withdrawing all its 27 Q400s permanently from its fleet, as Mats Jansson, the group’s chief executive, said confidence in the aircraft had “diminished considerably” and customers were “becoming increasingly doubtful about flying in this type of aircraft”.

Following air-accident investigations, European and Canadian aviation safety authorities approved the airworthiness of the Q400, however. No similar issues were reported by other airlines and Bombardier pointed to a continuing stream of orders as confirmation of “continued confidence” in the aircraft.

In 2003, ATR was close to ending production at its Toulouse plant, as a shrinking order book threatened its survival. That year it sold 10 aircraft and delivered just nine.

The improvement during the past four years has been startling. Last year ATR delivered 44 aircraft, as production rose from 24 in 2006 and 15 in 2005.

Bombardier increased its commercial turboprop deliveries from 48 to 66 in the 12 months to the end of January. New orders in the same period jumped to 97, from 38 a year earlier.

At ATR, turnover has doubled in the past three years from $542m in 2005 to $1.1bn last year. In 2007, it booked orders for 113 new aircraft, the highest sales in its history. In the three years from 2005 to 2007 it won new orders for 266 aircraft, compared with only 33 in 2002 to 2004, the worst period of the order famine.

By the end of last year it had 195 orders in the backlog, the highest level for 17 years and up from 12 at the end of 2004.

This year, ATR is planning to deliver more than 60 aircraft with turnover expected to exceed $1.3bn. It is adding staff and preparing to expand production capacity to more than 80 aircraft a year by 2010-11 to cope with the rising demand.