Europe's ATR signs provisional order for $1.3 billion IndiGo plane deal

PARIS (Reuters) - European turboprop maker ATR has signed a provisional order to sell 50 ATR 72-600 aircraft, worth more than $1.3 billion at list price, to Indian airline IndiGo, the companies said on Tuesday.

ATR, which is jointly owned by Airbus and Italian company Leonardo, said the aircraft were set to start operations by the end of 2017.

If completed, the IndiGo plane deal would mark the biggest order for ATR, whose rivals include Bombardier, in at least a decade.

"Their decision further proves that our aircraft is the right tool to link communities and develop business throughout India," said ATR Chief Executive Christian Scherer, commenting on the provisional order with IndiGo.

IndiGo, which also reported a drop in quarterly profits on Tuesday, currently flies the Airbus A320-family jets and is one of the European planemaker's biggest customers.

(Reporting by Tim Hepher and Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Adrian Croft)