The order included 25 firm orders and 50 options and deliveries will commence in 2015 through to 2020, it said.

"With this new order, totalling 75 aircraft, signed today at a special ceremony at the 2014 Farnborough Airshow, NAC solidifies its position as ATR’s largest customer," it said in the statement.

ATR is an equal partnership between two major European aeronautics players, the Airbus Group and Alenia Aermacchi, a Finmeccanica Group company.

(Reporting by Ole Mikkelsen, editing by Louise Heavens)