Story ID: 1193AvincisAINDec12EditedByMM_NM.doc
Inaer-Bond Holding Company Gains Visibility
By: Thierry Dubois
Caption: 
Word Count: 219
Avincis is the new name for World Helicopters, a firm that combined the Bond Aviation Group with Inaer when it took over the former last spring. The group, owned by KKR and Investindustrial, operates 400 aircraft, 350 of them helicopters.

The company, which is technically called “Avincis mission-critical services” is also doing business as Inaer (in Spain, Italy, France, Portugal, Chile and Peru), Bond (in the UK, Ireland and Australia), Australian Helicopters (in Australia) and Norsk Helikopterservice (in Norway). In addition, Avincis is a partner (via Inaer) in Helidax, a joint venture that trains French army helicopter pilots.

Avincis has defined three service areas: “life and rescue,” which includes search-and-rescue and air ambulance; “safety and environment,” which comprises firefighting; fisheries and marine protection and border patrol; disaster response; civil protection; marine pilotage; and “energy support,” which provides transport to remote locations such as oil and gas rigs, and wind turbines.

Last year Avincis flew 180,000 people over the North Sea. Headquartered in London, it operates 295 bases in the aforementioned 10 countries. The group employs almost 3,000 people, for a turnover of €521 million (about $680 million). In 2011 Avincis companies flew some 126,000 hours.

Expressing a corporate philosophy, group CEO James Drummond recently emphasized in a statement that the board has instituted a corporate target of zero accidents.