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Posted on February 22, 2018
Despite a flatlining of orders from the oil-and-gas market for the H225 Super Puma,
a swelling of bookings from other sectors has led to Airbus Helicopters
ramping up its production line
to enable the delivery of more than 100 aircraft over the next five years.
The H225 is offsetting a lack of orders for offshore transport with success in other areas,
such as search-and-rescue.
Last year saw just eight H215/H225s delivered, but was also one of the type’s strongest years in terms of bookings, with 54 aircraft ordered.
Airbus has not received any orders for the H225 from the oil-and-gas market
since the April 2016 crash of a CHC-operated H225 near Turøy, Norway.
The incident resulted in the worldwide grounding of the fleet
while Airbus and regulatory authorities explored the cause of the incident
and confirmed preventative measures —
such as the development of a full flow magnetic plug that improves the detection of metal spalling.
Despite the type subsequently gaining approval for operation from aviation authorities around the world,
only 22 are now flying in offshore oil-and-gas operations, largely in Asia.
In February 2018, Omni Táxi Aéreo signed a contract with Total E&P
that marked the return of the type to operation in Brazil.
Because of the market interest,
Airbus is making adjustments to its H225 final assembly line in Marignane, France,
that will allow it to raise the production rate from 2017’s eight aircraft,
to 13 in 2018,
and 30 per year thereafter.
At the end of last year, there were 100 people working in the final assembly line
— which can accommodate 14 aircraft.
This had increased to 150 staff by February 2018,
and will reach 400 by the start of 2019.
The workers will come from other programs,
and some will be externally subcontracted, said Macia.
...andAn image problem in the North Sea?
Régis Magnac, head of customer operations at Airbus Helicopters,
said the general downturn in the oil-and-gas market had led to an overcapacity
that would have affected H225 sales in that segment regardless
of the impact of the Turøy crash —
but admitted the aircraft suffers from an image problem
in the key market of the North Sea.
“We recognize that there is a perception issue
in the North Sea because of the history of the aircraft,
because of what happened,” he said.
Indeed, in a survey from the manufacturer last year,
60 percent of the 5,000 respondents in the offshore oil-and-gas sectors
said they would be uncomfortable flying in the H225.
But the survey also found that
the majority of respondents didn’t know
what the company had done to address any issues in the aircraft.
https://www.verticalmag.com/news/airbus ... BQQg%3D%3D
has even more information than the above...