Airbus Helicopters released its annual results for North America in early February, revealing a total of 64 orders for the manufacturer in the U.S. and Canada as a slumping civil turbine helicopter market saw just 100 aircraft purchased across the continent in 2016.
Chris Emerson, president of Airbus Helicopters Inc. and head of North American operations, told Vertical that while he had expected it to be a tough year, the final figure represented just 50 percent of the 200 North American sales across the OEMs that the manufacturer had forecast at the start of the year.
The biggest seller was the H125 AStar, followed by the H145, H135 and H130, with a growing interest from the VIP/corporate sector. Of the 64 sales the manufacturer recorded, 20 were to new Airbus customers, and five were first-time helicopter owners. In previous years, Emerson said, Airbus would have added five such customers to its entire global fleet. And, of the 20 new customers, 75 percent were VIP clients.
“This was really hunting, it was intense, [and] it put us in a vulnerable situation at times, because we were talking to customers who really had a different expectation of us,” said Emerson. “We were selling to customers who said they could only do training on the weekends — and we’ve never trained on the weekends. We had to gear up our whole training organization, and the flight line, because you have to have helicopters maintained to be available seven days a week. And, in January, we started our first ab initio training.”
Emerson added that the sale of an H145 to Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones showed the company that there was a realistic market out there of high net worth individuals who would purchase a helicopter to combat increasing commuting times — and this resulted in sales throughout the year.
In terms of other sectors, law enforcement sales were as the manufacturer predicted, the utility market was down, and so was the air medical segment.
“Of course, it was also an election year, and a lot of these [air medical] operators were not sure what was going to happen with Obamacare,” said Emerson. “So I think a natural postponement of aircraft acquisitions was inevitable.”
However, Airbus noted “a bit of a reversing trend” with a pickup in sales of light twins in the air medical market — after 2015 saw a general shift away from light twins towards single-engine aircraft.
Emerson pointed towards his company’s efforts to control more of the completions process as part of the reason for its success with new clients, growing the amount of completions that it managed or performed from 30 to 90 percent.
“All of this goes to managing the customer experience,” he said. “I don’t want someone buying an Airbus helicopter and having a poor experience. I want them buying an Airbus helicopter and going back to their friends and saying, ‘That was such a great experience — you should try it.’ And, in a sense, that’s what happened.”
Other company initiatives included improving the availability of spares and enhancing its engineering capabilities, and Emerson said the company’s efforts to improve its support services were recognized by its customers.
Hope for an Improved 2017
The exact impact of the Trump administration may be hard to pinpoint at this early stage, but Emerson hopes it will result in sales to Customs and Border Protection, as well as an influx of military spending that could unlock some opportunities for the Lakota with additional Army orders and perhaps for initial pilot training for the Air Force.
“They do the Air Force initial pilot training in Fort Rucker where there are 200 Lakotas,” he said. “Doesn’t it make sense to have a Lakota [for the Air Force] as well, where you can benefit from the support infrastructure that Fort Rucker has?”
On the civilian side, Emerson said he was hopeful that Airbus would see some activity around the H160 this year, following discussions it has been having with “a lot” of operators about Airbus’s new medium-lift aircraft.
However, the Super Medium H175, which made its debut in Europe back in December 2015, is still to enter service in North America.
“We’ve come to an agreement with the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] on the certification of Helionix Step Two, which should occur in spring this year,” he said. “With that, the 175 completes its certification in the U.S., and we are working on a handful of deals right now that one could see a delivery in the U.S. at the end of the year, maybe the beginning of next year.”
A major recent development for the manufacturer’s ever-popular H125 was the certification of the BLR Aerospace FastFin system for the aircraft, which will be offered as an option on new aircraft and as a kit for existing AStars.
“Obviously utility and air medical operators are very interested in it,” said Emerson. “We haven’t sold any yet, but we really haven’t been actively marketing it yet.”
Despite the challenges that lie ahead, Emerson was optimistic about the outlook for 2017. “My ambitions are even higher this year,” he said. “I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t end the year better than we did last year.”
