Bell banks on rising demand for helicopters in the Kingdom
THAILAND is one of the key markets in the Asia-Pacific region for US-based Bell Helicopter as demand grows for helicopters equipped for medical services, said Patrick Moulay, the company’s executive vice president/global sales and marketing, said yesterday at the Singapore Airshow 2018.
The US company, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Textron, is also pursuing sales opportunities in other Asia-Pacific countries, especially China, the Philippines and Indonesia, where demand is rising for both military and medical helicopters, Moulay said.
In 2017, the company sold 200 helicopters to China, 16 to the Philippines, eight to Thailand, and two each to Asian Aviation Resources Pte Lte in Cambodia, Vietnam Helicopter Corporation, and Japan.
In Indonesia, the company has signed a contract with PT Travira Air, a charter operator based in Jakarta, for Bell’s Customer Advantage Plans support services for three of its Bell 412 EPs.
The deal raised the company’s business growth last year by 75 per cent when compared with the previous year, Moulay said.
In Thailand, the demand for helicopters continues to grow, especially for medical helicopters, he said.
Market recovery
He said the overall helicopter market recovered to post strong growth last year, thanks to demand from Asia-Pacific countries. However, sales have declined in the US and Europe over the past three years ago amid global economic uncertainties.
With strong demand in the Asia-Pacific region, especially in China, the company is studying whether to set up a maintenance or service centre in China that that may open in the next two to three years, he said. The company has a service centre in Singapore.
“We cannot says how much the investment could come to for maintenance or service centre in China as that depends on the size of the centre,” Moulay said. “However, that would be the next step for our business when we expand our market in the Asia-Pacific region.”
Bell Helicopter’s maintenance and training centre in Singapore has supported 1,260 bell helicopters operating throughout the region, the company’s general manager of Asia-Pacific and Oceania, Chris Schaefer, said in a press release yesterday.
Bell Helicopter produces commercial and military, manned and unmanned vertical-lift aircraft and claims to be a pioneer in development of the revolutionary tiltrotor aircraft.
Bell’s global workforce serves customers flying Bell aircraft in more than 120 countries.
