Story ID: 463
Leonardo Helicopters Sees Solid Growth in Europe
By: Ian Sheppard
Caption: Italian company believes helicopters that suit a number of applications hedge it against a possible downturn, while it has UAS well in hand.
Word Count: 551
Leonardo Helicopters (Booth T71) has reported stronger growth in the European market than in previous years, and believes that “even in case of a market downturn, the flexibility of our helicopters allow us to be relatively safe because we can address all types of requirements.” The company has final assembly lines in Vergiate and Tessera, Italy; Yeovil, UK; Świdnik, Poland; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

“The state of the market is better than it used to be, and Leonardo is very optimistic about its helicopter family, which includes the AW168, AW139 and AW189," Emilio Dalmasso, head of global sales, told AIN. “Our helicopters are perfect for a number of missions such as EMS/SAR, offshore transport, and corporate/VIP transport.”

The AW169, he noted, “has registered a growing success with almost 60 units delivered and a solid and growing order book, especially in the VIP/corporate transport and EMS/parapublic sectors.”

Meanwhile, the AW139 is “perfectly mature without having lost the edge over the competition, with a cemented confidence from operators of all kinds,” he said, and the AW189 is “the go-to super-medium helicopter.” Apart from the obvious offshore market, it is the perfect helicopter for long-range SAR missions, he said.

Specifically addressing the offshore market, which has suffered from the lull in oil prices in recent years, Dalmasso said, “We see better conditions…which is very positive considering that we already had a very strong hand thanks to the AW139 and the AW189. We expect these two types to keep and increase even further their market share in the near term, when older models will be phased out due to obsolesce, low safety standards, and higher costs to operate.”

He noted that in the wind power sector, although it is still relatively a niche, “We recently introduced the AW169 [and we have] different customers interested.”

Dalmasso said the EMS/SAR markets would also “continue to be important” and believes a competitive edge could be developed in that market by helping “to improve situational awareness or to increase safety in bad weather,” something Leonardo is “constantly” researching. Such technologies include synthetic vision and enhanced vision systems, the Obstacle Proximity LiDAR System, and limited or full ice-protection systems.

One threat to helicopter sales could be UAVs, but Leonardo Helicopters is confident that in the wider Leonardo Group, Italy’s leading aerospace company, it is “well positioned” in this sector, too. “As the only OEM in Europe with full integrated capabilities in the UAV domain covering platform and system integration, Leonardo is well positioned in this field and is developing solutions also in the rotorcraft sector. Our UAS division expands the capabilities of vertical lift for certain applications and in range of weight/size categories not necessarily covered by manned rotorcraft.”

Linked to this is the emerging eVTOL and urban-mobility market. “It is important to underline that the market is still in the long-term vision phase. Leonardo is always interested in new solutions—the first civil tiltrotor AW609 proves that–and looks carefully at new trends," Dalmasso said. "I would say that, currently, most of our attention is on the technology that can be used for those projects. Examples are the active rotor blade and electric tail rotor."