Waypoint Leasing this week launched a partnership with helicopter maintenance and support group Eagle to provide asset management services. The new Global Asset Managements Services offering will help third-party helicopter owners, such as banks and other financial institutions, to more efficiently manage these assets.
According to Waypoint, the new services will be useful in situations where an asset owner has to deal with unplanned return of aircraft from a lessee. Eagle will provide assistance with remarketing the assets, and, as necessary, provide maintenance support and the opportunity to reconfigure aircraft for new roles. The services provided also include aircraft storage, inspection, contract and supply chain administration, insurance, logistics and asset purchase and sale analysis.
“Waypoint’s experienced in-region sales and relationship management team has remarketed numerous aircraft and our technical team has managed more than a dozen extensive maintenance and reconfiguration projects,” commented Waypoint managing director Allan Rowe. “Certain financial asset owners are not equipped to remarket aircraft themselves, and through this partnership with Eagle, we will provide a cost-effective solution to get idle aircraft back to work, addressing a burgeoning unmet need in the market.”
New Life For AW139s
Ireland-based Waypoint and Canada-based Eagle also this week announced a program to reconfigure legacy Leonardo AW139 models for new utility missions such as firefighting, emergency medical support, search and rescue, mining and powerline support and general aerial work and transportation. The Waypoint Medium Utility Helicopter program will mainly focus on finding new roles for older “short nose” AW139s by reducing weight to allow greater payload and the addition of new mission-specific equipment.
“Reconfiguring an aircraft traditionally used for oil and gas to meet the growing demand for a range of utility missions underscores the aircraft’s versatility and Waypoint’s ability to listen to our customers and provide creative and flexible solutions to meet their needs,” said Clark McGinn, Waypoint senior v-p for sales and relationship management. “Keeping aircraft operating in secondary missions ultimately brings down costs for the entire industry. We look forward to collaborating with Eagle on this program to redefine what’s possible for an independent, operator-focused lessor such a Waypoint.”
Waypoint (Booth 9836), which was launched in 2013, has a lease portfolio of more than 140 helicopters with 28 customers in 30 countries and with a total asset value in excess of $1.6 billion. The company holds orders and options for more than 110 aircraft with a combined value of $1.3 billion that are due to be delivered over the next five years.