Leonardo announced today at the Heli-Expo event, under way in Las Vegas from February 27 to the first of March, the signing of orders for a total of 17 helicopters with a total value of about 140 million euros by several customers in various countries and for a wide range of civil and public utility applications. The contracts include a mix of all commercial models: AW119Kx, AW109 GrandNew, AW109 Trekker, AW169, AW139 and AW189 confirming the great competitiveness of Leonardo's product portfolio.
Seven units for helicopter rescue, of which three AW139 and four AW169, will be deployed in Europe. One of the AW169 in particular is intended for the British operator Specialist Aviation Services (SAS), which has already received seven helicopters of the same model and intends to bring its fleet of AW169 to twelve in the future. Leonardo has a solid position on the worldwide emergency medical and search and rescue market, with more than 600 helicopters serving in 50 countries.
The German company HeliService International GmbH (HeliService) has, in turn, ordered a third AW169 for offshore transport to support the wind energy industry for operations in the North Sea. The first two helicopters ordered in 2015 and 2016, already in service today, were the first AW169s purchased in Germany and the first for this use. Since 2015, other contracts with European customers for carrying out activities in the North Sea have consolidated the success of the AW169 in its market segment. The presence on the Oil & Gas market is also growing thanks to a contract for an AW139 and an option for an additional machine signed by the Indonesian operator Travira Air. This is the fourth helicopter of this type purchased by the customer in the Southeast Asian country.
An AW109 GrandNew and AW109 Trekker were ordered by Sloane Helicopters, Leonardo's helicopter distributor in the UK, with sales of 75 helicopters in the country. The operator thus becomes the first North European customer for AW109 Trekker, which has recently received the EASA certification and has already achieved significant international success with over 40 units sold to date. A further AW109 GrandNew was ordered in Japan by the official Kaigai Aviotech distributor while an AW139 will be used in Spain for passenger transport tasks. In Argentina, Flight Express purchased an AW119Kx and an AW169 for executive transport. Leonardo confirms its position as the world's leading VIP / Corporate market, with a share of 50% in the twin-engine helicopter segment.
Leonardo has also renewed the distribution agreement for its AW169, AW139 and AW189 helicopters in Japan with Mitsui Bussan Aerospace for the next three years. On the same occasion, the distributor also ordered an AW189 and signed the agreement to supply a greater number of spare parts, thus strengthening the support and maintenance services in the country.
Finally, the Tianjin Police in China chose the AW139 for public order missions, traffic control, search and rescue and other public utility tasks, contributing to the further growth of the helicopter fleet of Leonardo helicopters for security tasks in the country Asian. To date, more than 20 units are delivered by the company to Chinese operators for these uses, including nine AW139. Numbers that place Leonardo in first place among the helicopter suppliers for the police in China. The orders announced today are added to those announced at Heli-Expo on February 28 and related to 26 helicopters of the AW119Kx, AW109 Trekker and AW139 models for the Sino-US distributor in China.
