Story ID: 
Leonardo Plans Agusta-branded Service Centers
By: Mark Huber
Caption: Leonardo intends to open dedicated Agusta helicopter service centers across the globe with its first to be in Europe.
Word Count: 232
Leonardo continues to evolve its Agusta luxury brand with plans to roll out dedicated helicopter service centers in the coming years. According to Manuela Barbarossa, Leonardo’s head of the VIP/corporate segment, the first location likely will be in Europe with additional locations—at least one on each continent—added across the globe.
Leonardo launched the Agusta brand in 2021 following a similar move by Airbus in 2017 when that company announced Airbus Corporate Helicopters. Formed in Italy in 1923 by Giovanni Agusta, Agusta began manufacturing helicopters under license from other OEMs—most notably Bell in 1952—and began developing its own indigenous helicopter, the Agusta A109 light twin, in the late 1960s. It then merged with Britain’s Westland Helicopters in 2000 to form AgustaWestland, later rebranded Leonardo Helicopters in 2017, a nod to Italian inventor and artist Leonardo da Vinci. 
Eighteen months after Leonardo announced its VIP brand, the company is adding features and benefits including the “Agusta for You” menu of custom-tailored completions, maintenance, and operational solutions.  Maintenance plans under the program cover scheduled and unscheduled events nose-to-tail for both airframe and avionics. “Effectively, it provides customers with a turnkey solution in terms of coverage,” Barbarossa said. Plans are available for the company’s complete line of helicopters, typically billed on a per-flight hour basis, and can include perks such as substitute aircraft.