Robinson Helicopter sees markets in China and India for thousands of helicopters and has plans to set up more dealerships.
David Smith, vice president of operations for Robinson Helicopter, thinks the emerging civil helicopter export markets for China and India are in their infancy. “These places have been emerging for too long,” he recently told AIN. “Emerging. That’s the word I always hear from the trade groups. It’s past emerging. It’s past due.”
Planting More Seeds in China
Start with China. Robinson has delivered more civil helicopters into that market than any other foreign OEM—475 through late 2023. The number sounds impressive until you slice it with a per capita divider. China’s population is 1.42 billion. “When you look at it on a per capita basis, it’s just incredibly low. Compare that to Australia where we have delivered 1,300 helicopters in a country with a population of 27 million,” Smith said.
Indeed, Australia and Brazil are Robinson’s leading export markets, but the potential in China and India is much larger, for the industry as a whole and Robinson in particular, according to Smith. To match Australia’s helicopter-to-population ratio in China, Robinson would need to deliver 10,000 helicopters. And Robinson is planting the seeds to make a run at it.
Robinson works through a worldwide dealer network, and in China, the helicopter OEM has established 11 service centers—mostly on the eastern side of the country, in industrial centers. Altogether, between dealers, representatives, and service centers, Robinson has 15 “company connections” in the country. Smith would like to see another five to 10 dealerships established in the western part of the country in the near future. “There’s ample demand,” he said. “There’s a lot of opportunity there to service the energy, mining, and automotive industries,” where helicopters are used to ferry in time-critical parts and technicians.
There’s also a demand for—and shortage of—civil helicopter pilots in China. Smith explained that most flight schools in China are run by state enterprises and weight their training toward churning out airline pilots. The helicopter pilot shortage is where Robinson can help.
Those pilots will be needed to fly critical public safety and air ambulance missions. Right now, Smith said there is a dearth of instructors to train those pilots. “We want to work with our dealers and service centers to ease delivery of our helicopters and training to customers.”
Right now, Chinese instructors must come to Robinson’s factory training course in California, and obtaining visas for them can slow the process and make it complicated. So besides expanding the dealer network, Robinson is working to get helicopter simulators into China to expedite and improve training.
“We build the world’s helicopter pilots across all demographics and regions,” Smith said, acknowledging that some regions in the world are “behind the curve” when it comes to pilot training. However, Robinson’s CFI safety course helps instructors “see the best way to use [Robinson] aircraft for training.”
Robinson is expanding its instructor and pilot training course and plans more announcements about this offering in the coming months, Smith said. “Qualified pilots are the result of qualified instructors, and we’re going to help with that.”
Huge Potential in India
Aside from China, the nascent Indian market is one where Smith thinks Robinson can make substantial progress in the coming years. Currently, only 18 of the company’s helicopters are flying in the region.
“India is the world’s most populous country [with 1.43 billion people]. In one respect [number of Robinson aircraft delivered] it’s underperforming expectations; it’s a more interesting challenge, but the opportunities are immense. China’s infrastructure is huge and well-funded—India’s is not the same. They have infrastructure challenges in every regard. I think our aircraft offer a perfect match for what they need to enable entrepreneurship and market expansion.”
And while eVTOLs have been touted in recent years as a solution to India’s massive ground congestion problem, Smith thinks it will be some time before either the needed support infrastructure is in place or the cost of eVTOL passenger transport will be cost-competitive with single-engine helicopters.
However, Robinson has just one dealer in India. “Predictably, that dealer can’t keep up with all the things that are coming their way on every opportunity across the whole country, so we definitely will be developing the dealer network in India,” Smith said. Robinson has three authorized service centers in the country, and Smith said the company is looking to add five to six dealers there in the coming years. “It’s going to get real focus from us.”
He sees a particularly strong potential market for the single-turbine engine R66 in India. (100LL avgas for Robinson R44 and R22 piston helicopters is hard to come by in India, but the situation is improving.) “It’s the perfect aircraft for the country that is going to quickly become one with the most billionaires and the most entrepreneurs. If you scale it to Australian standards, it’s easily a 10,000 [civil helicopter] market if the industry players, us included, do the job right.”
Smith sees the ability to maintain Robinson helicopters with less maintenance in relatively austere environments as a market advantage in both China and India. However, as in China, pilot training is a concern. [India’s] policy is similar to China’s. It is very heavy on developing commercial [airline] pilots. There’s not enough emphasis on general aviation pilot development and even less on [civil] helicopter pilot development. We have to work on that. We need more people on the front lines in India.”
Robinson hopes to work with interested dealers there who want to develop flight training as a side business. “It can be a huge part of our growth. And, of course, they will buy their aircraft from us,” Smith said.
Other OEMs Make Gradual Market Inroads
Airbus, Bell, and Leonardo continue to make inroads into the Chinese and Indian markets as well.
Airbus started supplying helicopters to China in 1967, and today there are more than 300 of them flying there, serving more than 90 customers. Airbus Helicopters service and logistics centers operate from eight locations within the country including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Chengdu, Harbin, Xiantao, and Qingdao.It provided its first in-country full-flight simulator for the H225 heavy twin in 2012, located at the Hua-Ou Aviation Training Center in Beijing. In 2019, Airbus established a final assembly line for its H135 light twin in Qingdao as part of a deal to provide 100 of those helicopters over 10 years.
In 2023, Airbus Helicopters signed a contract with China’s GDAT, a helicopter lessor and operator, for 50 H160 intermediate-twin helicopters—a deal worth more than $700 million.
GDAT specializes in helicopter sales, leasing, maintenance, and modifications, as well as operating emergency rescue and other government services flights. GDAT already operates a fleet of 26 Airbus helicopters, including 21 H225 Super Puma heavy twins.
In 2010, Airbus was the first foreign helicopter OEM to set up a customer center in India and now claims more than half of the domestic civil and parapublic market in the country. More than 100 Airbus helicopters are flying in India, with models including the H125, H130, H135, H145, and AS365 Dauphin, serving energy, commercial, private, and business markets as well as helicopter EMS, airborne law enforcement, urban air mobility, and powerline maintenance. Recently, India’s first official HEMS service was launched in the states of Karnataka and Uttarakhand, using H130s. In March 2023, Airbus announced the sale of two ACH160s in India,the first sale of the type in the region, to an undisclosed customer.
Airbus Helicopters also recently authorized Indian MRO Indamer to service its fleet of H145s and H135s.
China is the second-largest market for Bell in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, following Australia, with 220 aircraft in the country, including 120 Model 407s, 30 Model 505 light singles, and 20 Model 429 light twins.
Bell considers the EMS market in China to be particularly promising, according to Herbert Wu, the company’s in-country media representative. “Currently, there are less than 100 specific HEMS-configured helicopters in China. To meet the needs of China’s vast population, an estimated 5,000 EMS helicopters would be required. Bell is actively working with our local collaborator, Shaanxi Helicopter, to develop this market,” Wu told AIN. Bell has also seen interest for its 525 super-medium twin in China, particularly in support of offshore energy.
Shaanxi Helicopter has established an EMS operation in that province. Additionally, other operators likewise are employing Bell models for EMS missions across the country, including flying a Bell 429 on disaster relief missions during the 2023 Beijing floods.
In-country service is available through MRO Bell China Services Center in Zhenjiang and Jiangsu and factory-authorized maintenance centers in Deqing, Zhejiang (for the Bell 429), as well as Zhuhai, Guangdong, and Xi’an, and Shaanxi (for the Bell 407). Shaanxi Helicopter is the exclusive dealer for the Bell 407 in China, delivering more than 80 helicopters, mostly 407s, in recent years. While Bell’s China MRO focuses on serving customers in the country, Bell’s Singapore center and co-located company training academy campus provide expanded services to customers throughout the region. While Bell does not operate a training academy in China, it does provide onsite training at customers’ facilities. Since 2017, it has conducted more than 3,500 hours of onsite training.
Leonardo has sold more than 200 civil helicopters in China to date for EMS, SAR, firefighting, law enforcement, passenger transport, and energy support. Models delivered include AW119s, AW109 series, AW139s, and AW189s. Recent significant orders include AW189s for maritime search and rescue and law enforcement and AW139s for offshore transport.
The helicopters in China are for passenger transport and energy support missions—primarily AW119, AW109 series, AW139s, and AW169s. The total includes more than 40 AW139 intermediate twins.