The AW189, the most successful helicopter in its weight and size category, is further increasing its presence in the global market, particularly in the offshore transport sector supporting the energy industry. Leonardo and the leasing company GDHF have signed a framework agreement to introduce 10 additional AW189s in this specific sector, with deliveries expected between 2027 and 2029. The announcement was made today during an official ceremony at the European Rotors show in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
“GDHF is pleased to sign this agreement with Leonardo for the supply of an additional 10 AW189s,” commented Michael York, CEO of the leasing company, “and the company has committed to a total of 13 helicopters of this type since the beginning of the collaboration, with the introduction of the first three already occurred. This large framework agreement will increase GDHF’s capabilities to support our customers globally by leasing additional AW189 helicopters. We thank Leonardo for this important collaboration and we continue to work together to offer our customers complete multi-mission solutions with the AW189 helicopters.”
The market for helicopter support to the energy industry is expected to grow significantly over the next 5 years, driven by new developments, including wind farm support and Search and Rescue (SAR) at sea, in compliance with new environmental regulations and the adoption of increasingly advanced technologies. With around 500 helicopters of different types in service today for offshore transport, Leonardo is the leading company in the sector of support to the energy industry. The high availability required and the high number of flight hours recorded in this sector, give a further push to increase the quality of service, to update products and training capabilities for the various helicopter models in service through data collection and analysis, in order to further increase Leonardo's competitiveness in the rotary wing sector as a whole. The expectation is that twin-engine helicopters in the weight categories currently filled by the AW139 and AW189 models will gradually drive this market for long-range operations, overtaking older, larger and heavier helicopter types.
The AW189, part of Leonardo’s new generation helicopter family and with a maximum take-off weight of 8,3/8,6 tonnes, combines superior lift capacity and range with advanced technology to successfully perform a wide range of missions such as support to the energy industry, passenger transport, search and rescue, fire-fighting and law enforcement. Unique features of the helicopter include the ability of the transmission to continue operating normally for 50 minutes without oil and an auxiliary power system. The AW189 is available with over 200 mission kits and is the only helicopter in its class equipped with a Full or Limited Ice Protection system certified in Europe, USA and Canada. The AW189 is also offered with a complete package of support and training services customized to the specific needs of operators in order to maximize mission effectiveness and safety. This model has also been certified to automatically transmit performance data to a ground station using in-flight satellite communications, 4G connectivity or Wi-Fi on the ground. It provides a secure way to share an accurate representation of each individual flight so that Leonardo engineers can quickly evaluate the data, thereby optimising maintenance and support.
To date, more than 90 AW189s have been delivered to operators worldwide. Around 50 of them are used for offshore transport and have exceeded 155 flight hours in this market segment. Ten years after certification, the AW10 remains the world leader in its weight class in terms of market size, number of operators, countries used and applications, including offshore transport, search and rescue (SAR), forest firefighting or disaster relief, law enforcement and passenger transport, both with an increasing number of orders from existing customers and being chosen by new operators, particularly in the energy and utilities sectors.
