Story ID: 5021212alerts
Honeywell’s Helicopter Forecast a Mixed Bag
By: AIN Staff
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Word Count: 215
Honeywell’s 14th annual Turbine-Powered Civilian Helicopter Purchase Outlook report that was released today offers a mixed review–in general, not so good in the short term, but not so bad in the long. While recent helicopter order rates have been healthy and near-term purchase plans remain strong, lingering tight credit conditions and significant inventories of used production models for sale continue to cast a pall on the industry, Honeywell said. “Concern over slow economic growth in Western economies has increased the level of uncertainty in purchase plans past 2012, leading to a six-point reduction in global purchase plans compared with last year,” said Honeywell’s prognosticators. However, “based on the timing of purchase plans in the operator survey and the delivery momentum expected this year and next, the outlook still calls for overall industry growth for the five-year period 2012 through 2016, compared with the previous five-year period.” Global five-year demand for new turbine-powered helicopters is split almost evenly between the Americas and the rest of the world, said the report, noting also that Latin America and Asia have the highest fleet replacement and expansion expectations of all regions. In terms of projected regional demand for new helicopters, “Latin America and Asia tied for the world’s largest regional market, following North America and Europe.”