Milestone Aviation places €200M firm order with Airbus Helicopters

7 March 2017

Milestone Aviation places €200M firm order with Airbus Helicopters
Dallas, Texas, 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.


About Milestone Aviation Group

Milestone Aviation Group, a GE Capital Aviation Services company, is the world's leading helicopter leasing and financing company. Milestone has a fleet of helicopters worth over US $4.0 billion plus debt commitments of approximately $400 million. The company has a forward order book of firm and option aircraft with an estimated aggregate purchase price in excess of US $3 billion. Milestone partners with helicopter operators worldwide, providing a wide array of financial and productivity solutions, including operating leases, purchase/leasebacks, secured debt financing, engine leasing and fleet advisory. The company supports over 35 customers in more than 30 countries serving a variety of industries, including offshore oil and gas, search and rescue, emergency medical services, police surveillance, mining and other utility missions.

» www.milestoneaviation.com


About GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS)

GECAS is a world leader in aviation leasing and financing with 50 years of experience. The GECAS portfolio comprises a wide range of aircraft types including narrowbodies, widebodies, regional jets, turboprops, freighters and helicopters. GECAS offers multiple financing products and services including operating leases, purchase/leasebacks, secured debt financing, capital markets, engine leasing, airframe parts management and airport/airline consulting. GECAS owns or services a fleet of over 1,950 aircraft (~1,700 fixed wing/ ~250 rotary wing) in operation or on order, plus provides loans collateralized on an additional ~400 aircraft. GECAS serves ~ 270 customers in over 75 countries from a network of 25 offices. www.gecas.com

GE (NYSE: GE) is the world’s Digital Industrial Company, transforming industry with software-defined machines and solutions that are connected, responsive and predictive. GE is organized around a global exchange of knowledge, the "GE Store," through which each business shares and accesses the same technology, markets, structure and intellect. Each invention further fuels innovation and application across our industrial sectors. With people, services, technology and scale, GE delivers better outcomes for customers by speaking the language of industry. www.ge.com


About Airbus

Airbus is a global leader in aeronautics, space and related services. In 2016, it generated revenues of € 67 billion and employed a workforce of around 134,000. Airbus offers the most comprehensive range of passenger airliners from 100 to more than 600 seats. Airbus is also a European leader providing tanker, combat, transport and mission aircraft, as well as Europe’s number one space enterprise and the world’s second largest space business. In helicopters, Airbus provides the most efficient civil and military rotorcraft solutions worldwide.

Medias:


Media contacts:


Nathan Riggs
Milestone:
Tel.: +1-212-521-4804
Guillaume Steuer
Airbus:
Mob.: + 33 (0)6 73 82 11 68
Laurence Petiard
Airbus:
Mob.: + 33 (0)6 18 79 75 69