This was announced last October by the Minister of Defense Lorenzo Guerini, immediately after signing the interministerial decree authorizing its purchase. Piaggio Aerospace, which is currently taking part in the Geneva International Business Aviation Show (EBACE2022), will supply a further six examples of the P.180 Avanti Evo to the Armed Forces, in addition to the nine aircraft ordered in December 2019 and currently in production.
“The new order completed today further strengthens the Company’s order book, just as the deadline for the submission of binding offers on the purchase of company assets is approaching,” said Piaggio Aerospace Extraordinary Commissioner Vincenzo Nicastro from Geneva. “In the meantime, we continue to work energetically also on the front of private customers, with some of whom we are consolidating interest in our aircraft.”
The contract, signed by the Italian Directorate of Aeronautical Armaments and Airworthiness and by Commissioner Nicastro himself, has a value of about 55 million euros and provides that the company will produce and deliver the aircraft – all intended for the transport of people – over a period of two years. The new aircraft will incorporate the advanced configuration specifications that had already been defined for the first order, innovations that are either in the final stage of development or already developed by the team of engineers of the Ligurian company.
The purchase of the new P.180 partially replaces the planned modernization plan of 18 of the aircraft currently available to the Carabinieri, Army, Navy and Air Force.
With the order announced, the order book for the Avanti Evo amounts to 17 units, while the total backlog in value, as of December 31, 2021, reaches about 446 million euros.