Milestone Aviation places €200M firm order with Airbus Helicopters

Milestone Aviation Group Limited (“Milestone”), the global leader in helicopter leasing, announced today a €200 million firm order with Airbus Helicopters including H145, H135 and H175 helicopters. Delivery of the aircraft on order is scheduled to begin in mid-2017 with deployment into emergency medical service and other parapublic segments.

Milestone’s current helicopter fleet includes over 60 Airbus Helicopters consisting of H130, H135, H145, H155, H175 and H225s with a cost of nearly USD $1 billion. In 2016, Milestone acquired 10 Airbus H145s largely supporting global EMS missions and believes there is significant opportunity for this light-twin aircraft.

“Milestone was very active in emergency medical services and other parapublic segment in 2016, and this order gives us near-term availability for H145 and H135 aircraft to support growing demand for new technology in these segments,” said Milestone President and CEO, Daniel Rosenthal.

“We are honoured to partner with Milestone and General Electric. As the owner of the largest and most diverse fleet of commercial Airbus Helicopters in the world, they have truly innovated the helicopter industry and are uniquely placed to bring new technology and financing solutions to operators across missions,” said Guillaume Faury, CEO of Airbus Helicopters. “We are very pleased that Milestone is supporting operators with Airbus helicopters across diverse segments of the industry such as emergency medical services, police surveillance, search and rescue, utility, fire-fighting and oil and gas crew transport.”

The H145 offers operators a large cabin, next-generation avionics, and powerful engines, positioning it as a desirable replacement across a variety of life-saving and utility missions. Likewise, the H135 offers significant technology and performance improvements and is the staple twin-engine platform in the global EMS market. The H175, Airbus Helicopter’s new generation medium-sized rotorcraft, delivers on all counts with its long range, smooth ride, excellent payload lift and outstanding cabin comfort.