[4] The Italian Air Force (AMI), who sought a replacement for the Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar, felt that the G.222 proposal had merit and placed an order for two prototypes and a ground-test airframe in 1968.

[10] In December 1978, Aeritalia elected to transfer final assembly of the G.222 from Turin to Naples, at which point a total of 44 firm orders had been obtained for the type and one aircraft per month was being manufactured.

[13][14] Rather than competing for the contract, Aeritalia and Italian aerospace company Aermacchi agreed to produce a joint proposal for the requirement, as both firms had been considering the development of a similar class of aircraft for some years.

[13] During the 1960s and 1970s, European aircraft manufacturers had undergone considerable corporate restructuring, including mergers and consolidations, as well as moved towards collaborative multi-national programmes, such as the newly launched Airbus A300.

In line with this trend towards intra-European cooperation, French aerospace company Aérospatiale and Aeritalia commenced discussions on the topic of working together to develop an all-new regional airliner.

Prior to this, both companies had been independently conducting studies for their own aircraft concepts, the AS 35 design in the case of Aerospatiale and the AIT 230 for Aeritalia, to conform with demand within this sector of the market as early as 1978.