HANGAR TALK Industry news relevant to your business
New Orders and New Markets Confirm Leonardo’s Strong Position in the Global Commercial Helicopter Sector
At Verticon 2025, Leonardo announced further growth within the commercial helicopter market, with new orders for nearly 30 helicopters of various models to several operators across Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia-Pacific, primarily for energy support, rescue and public service duties, and VIP transport operations.
Combined orders for the AW109 GrandNew, AW169, AW139, and AW189 types have a total value of approximately 370 million EUR, with deliveries between 2026 and 2028. These orders add to preliminary sales contracts for 15 AW09 next-generation single-engine helicopters for European and Southeast Asian customers.
Moreover, Leonardo also announced the entry into new markets, particularly supporting the energy industry and rescue missions with the AW169 and AW189 and the latest simulation technologies for pilot training, including the VxR virtual and extended reality pilot simulator.
This year, the energy industry was the primary market focal point. With nearly 500 helicopters of various types in service today to perform offshore transport and an unrivaled level of deliveries by value
32 Mar/Apr 2025
over the last 10 years — 60% share in the previous five — Leonardo is the market leader for energy support.
Offshore operations require high aircraft availability rates, with many flight hours logged by the helicopters used for this task. Leveraging data gathering and analysis from the demanding offshore market and its intensive operations enables Leonardo to enhance further the overall service quality, product, and training capabilities of various models across all other applications. The energy support market is expected to steadily increase over the next five years, driven by new field developments (including wind-farm support, harbor-pilot shuttle, and dedicated offshore SAR assisting the energy sector), in compliance with new environmental regulations, and adopting more advanced technologies.
Intermediate and super medium twin- weight categories, like the Leonardo AW139 and AW189 respectively, are ideally positioned to continue to lead this market for long-range operations, outperforming aging heavier and bigger types. Contracts and milestones announced at Verticon provide further evidence of this performance and of the market response. Gama Aviation ordered two AW139s in the U.K. Three units were purchased by China General Aviation Company (CGAC) as the Chinese civil AW139 fleet continues to expand with the recent arrival of three aircraft for CITIC
Offshore Helicopter Company (COHC). The AW139 remains a bestseller in its class for multiple applications, nearing 1,500 orders for all applications by customers worldwide today since it entered the market in 2004.
Last year and in early 2025, the AW189 global fleet was expanded with new orders and deliveries, with Norway becoming one of the key regions. A contract signed by Norwegian operator Lufttransport at Verticon for two AW189s to deliver long-range/high-capacity missions in demanding conditions in the Norwegian continental shelf confirms this trend. The exhibition in Dallas also marked the first order for the new skidded variant of the AW169 helicopter in the energy market with a contract for five units by Petroleum Air Services (PAS) of Egypt. At the same time, Sabine Harbor Pilots announced the intention to leverage two in-service AW169s from HeliService USA to deliver harbor pilot shuttle (HPS) services in Texas, the first of this kind for the type in North America.
The versatility and continued capability growth of the AW169 continue to be among the key factors of its market success for rescue duties. At Verticon, Leonardo announced the first civil order in Europe and the Emergency Medical Service sector globally for the latest variant featuring a combination of skid undercarriage and a 5.1t increased gross weight (IGW). Gama Aviation signed this
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82
