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http://www.helicopterinvestor.com/artic ... pters-175/Breaking: LCI signs deal for up to six Airbus H175 helicopters
JULY 27
Leasing services company LCI Aviation has ordered up to six H175 super-medium helicopters from Airbus, valued at over $125m. The deal follows confirmation of a resurgence in super-medium and heavy helicopter activity earlier this month from consultancy Air & Sea Analytics.
The order is for two confirmed helicopters, with the first H175 to be delivered to LCI in late 2023. The deal includes an option for a further four aircraft and follows LCI’s previous order for new H175s.
Whilst there were still 41 inactive S-92s in the first quarter (Q1) of this year, AW189s and H175s are at or near full effective utilisation, according to the report. The pool of available S-92s is fewer than two dozen, after accounting for RTS activity, secondary market activity and retirements already underway.
...earlier this year:
https://www.flightglobal.com/helicopter ... 89.article
27 January 2022
Airbus Helicopters is confident that its H175 will bounce back from two consecutive years of low sales amid a continued demand slump for offshore-roled rotorcraft.
In 2021, the super-medium-class H175 registered just four orders, which, although an improvement on the previous year’s figure of zero, still lagged every other type in the airframer’s range.
But briefing reporters on the firm’s order and delivery performance on 26 January, Bruno Even, Airbus Helicopters chief executive, said that he was convinced the H175’s time would come, even if it might struggle in the short term.
“The H175’s main challenge is more a market challenge rather than a competitiveness issue,” he says, noting that “requests for super-medium and heavy helicopters are still low”.
Even says the helicopter is “well-positioned” and has been “well received” by operators for its performance levels. “But we don’t see yet the market recovery,” he adds.
Although the price of oil has risen steadily since hitting a low point in early 2020 – with Brent Crude on 26 January topping $90 a barrel for the first time since 2014 – “we have not yet seen an impact on the oil and gas market for helicopters”, says Even, who thinks it “will take time to recover”.
But he sees “opportunity in the coming period” as operators look to renew their fleets, even of heavier helicopters like the Sikorsky S-92. The H175, he says, “can perform most of the missions of the S-92 at a much lower cost”.