Leonardo is displaying the first European customer Leonardo AW109 VIP Trekker this week at the Monaco Yacht Show. The helicopter was sold to longtime Leonardo distributor Sloane Helicopters in the UK. It will be operated by Apollo Air Services and available for VIP charter.
Almost 100 VIP-configured Leonardo helicopters operate in the UK and Ireland, accounting for 90 percent of the VIP charter light-twin market there, a market share second only to Brazil's, where 130 Leonardo VIP helicopters operate. Worldwide, Leonardo claims 44 percent of the twin-engine VIP market. Of the 2,300 Leonardo helicopters in service worldwide, more than 830 currently serve the private, charter, scheduled, corporate transport, air-taxi, tourism, and VVIP transport markets. More than 60 AW109 Trekkers already have been sold to customers worldwide and are employed for missions that include VIP transport, offshore, utilities, EMS/SAR, and law enforcement.
The six- to seven-passenger Trekker is a lower-cost variant of its retractable gear AW109 GrandNew. It is equipped with skid landing gear, sliding rear doors, and the Genesys Aerosystems glass-cockpit avionics system that can be configured for IFR operations.