Airbus Helicopters and GDAT signed a contract for up to 20 H175 helicopters, including 10 firm orders and 10 options. GD Helicopter Finance (GDHF), a start-up helicopter leasing and finance company based in Dublin, Ireland, will be marketing these H175 helicopters to customers in the energy, SAR, EMS and parapublic market segments worldwide.
“This new H175 order, along with the existing 50 Airbus H160 medium helicopters already on the GDAT order book, will be available to GDHF,” said Michael York, CEO of GDHF.
In service since 2015, Airbus’ H175 belongs to the super-medium class of helicopters, designed for range of onshore and offshore mission profiles, including disaster relief, search & rescue and other public services, as well as crew change and private and business aviation. The 55 H175s currently in service have accumulated more than 210,000 flight hours, of which 184,000 in the energy sector.
“The creation of GDHF and this follow-on GDAT contract underlines the versatility and competitiveness of the H175 and the H160. We look forward to a long-standing partnership with GDHF as they put these multi-mission helicopters into service with their customers around the globe,” said Bruno Even, CEO of Airbus Helicopters.
