Airbus Helicopters Brazilian subsidiary Helibras dominates the Latin American country’s turbine helicopter market with a 47% share “and in the para-public market—police, fire, and such—we have 80% share and in the military 70%,” commercial director Alessandre Fontes Sampaio told AIN this week at LABACE 2024. He noted that Helibras is the only helicopter manufacturer in the southern hemisphere, with two lines at its factory in Itajubá—producing the H125 Esquilo and the H225 Super Cougar—and a third one “under consideration” for the H145.
Meanwhile, he said, one of Helibras’ largest contracts is reaching a successful conclusion. The HXBR contract was for the supply of 47 H225Ms—15 to each of Brazil’s armed forces—and two to the presidential airlift wing. “Last week, we supplied the 44th and next year we’ll deliver the last—one each to the three armed forces. That contract took us from assembler to manufacturer,” Sampaio noted.
Fulfilling that contract doesn’t leave Helibras idle since a new contract, THX, will provide 27 H125 Esquilos to Brazil’s armed forces—15 for the navy and 12 for the air force. This contract was signed two years ago, he said, and deliveries will begin this year.
The H225M contract included a simulator training center built in Rio de Janeiro’s oceanside Barra da Tijuca neighborhood. That center, Sampaio said, is “working hard” to train Brazilian military pilots, in addition to those from Bolivia and Mexico. Another user of this training facility is a civilian operator that employs H225 helicopters to set up high-voltage power lines.
As the wave of airport privatizations is displacing business aviation companies, Helibras has signed a 20-year lease for its headquarters building and hangar at São Paulo Campo de Marte Airport. The move also placed aircraft parts inventory and maintenance activities near its largest customer—the São Paulo state military police, which operates 26 Airbus helicopters.
Sampaio also emphasized the qualifications of Helibras’ engineers. “We even do engineering for fixed-wing aircraft,” he said, and its dynamics shop is only one of three like it in the world, with the others being in France and Germany.
The company’s helicopter production facility counts on the Federal University of Itajubá for workers and “36 [Brazilian] companies that are part of the supply chain. There are 500 direct employees and 3,000 indirect jobs,” Sampaio said.
There When the Country Calls
In two recent disasters, Helibrás responded with help that no one else could provide. When a dam collapsed in Brumadinho and flooded communities, “Helibras mobilized 23 helicopters during 48 days. They flew rescue missions by day and our mechanics maintained them by night. The cost was high and Helibras didn’t charge. Two years later a court ordered [mining company Vale] to reimburse everyone who helped,” according to Sampaio.
In the record floods in Rio Grande do Sul earlier this year, a fleet of helicopters were sent to help from the São Paulo police and Brazil’s army, as well as private owners who volunteered aircraft. Helibras sent a team of helicopter mechanics to keep these rescue missions going 24/7.
“For many people with the waters rising, a helicopter was the last chance for survival,” he said. “It required all models of helicopters, with an Esquilo making a rescue where an H225’s backwash would blow down a house.”