Airbus Helicopters is attempting to keep pace with an aggressive ramp-up target across its entire programme range to bring down extended lead times and meet a target of 400 deliveries per year by 2027.
Executive vice-president of programmes Stefan Thome says this year’s output will be “above and beyond” 2023, when the airframer shipped 346 helicopters.
Thome, speaking to FlightGlobal on 6 November at the European Rotors event in Amsterdam, declined to offer a precise forecast for full-year deliveries but says they will grow in the “very high single-digit” range over 2023.
This year will mark the “second [consecutive] year of steady growth”, he adds.
In the nine months to 30 September Airbus Helicopters delivered 190 units, against 197 in the same period a year earlier, but October’s output exceeded the same month in 2023, he notes.
The airframer’s light-single helicopters – the H125/H130 – will still account for the bulk of deliveries this year, with significant contribution also coming from the H145 light-twin, which has continued to sell strongly to both civil and military operators.
By 2027, those two programmes alone will account for around 300 of the 400 total annual deliveries, Thome says.
Backlog for the H145 grew further during European Rotors with Airbus Helicopters announcing a firm order for a single example from French operator Air Telis, part of a five-unit framework agreement. And at the Air Medical Transport Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, Global Medical Response signed for three H145s, alongside 14 H135s, six H125s and five H130s.
The increasing popularity of the military H145M – which takes on average around three more months to build than the civil version – has required particular attention, as the airframer seeks to double total output of the type by 2026.
In the past, both models were produced on the same line in Donauworth, Germany, but as the proportion of H145Ms increases, there is a risk of inadvertently slowing down production of the civil variant too.
To head off that issue, Airbus Helicopters earlier this year reconfigured the final assembly line, splitting out the H145M and creating a “dedicated production flow to cope with increasing military numbers”, says Thome.
More significantly, the manufacturer has begun producing examples of the civil variant for the North American market at its site in Columbus, Mississippi. The assembly line will be sized to build up to 16 H145s each year from 2025.
Although Thome cautions that US production “is at an early stage”, output will increase in the coming years: “It is a smaller proportion, but it is part of what is required to make the ramp-up.”
At present, the lead time on an H145 is around 18 months, but the changes implemented will “bring this down significantly” from 2026 onwards, he adds.
Similar progress is being made on the medium-class H160 and super-medium H175. While the former is still in the ramp-up phase post-service entry, production of the latter is being raised to meet increasing demand, especially from the oil and gas market.
By year-end the H175 will have “made a nice step-up in output”, says Thome, against a goal to quadruple production by 2026, albeit from a low base of three or four aircraft per year.
Output will “stabilise” in 2025, before ramping up again in 2026, as updates – notably the addition of a full ice-protection system (FIPS) – are brought on stream.
Testing of the FIPS finished in June, with the “campaign completed positively”, says Thome, adding: “We know that it works and how it works; industrializing it and certifying it will take up until the end of next year.”
Airbus Helicopters says the weight impact of the FIPS for an H175 in a typical North Sea oil and gas configuration is around 260kg (573lb) – a figure than can be reduced to 110kg in the summer thanks to a partial removal kit.
The airframer also points out that even with the FIPS installed, the H175’s equipped empty weight in an oil and gas configuration “remains the lowest in its category”.
“Furthermore, when FIPS is operated in icing conditions, the impact on helicopter performance is lowered due to non-use of engine bleed air,” it adds.
Airbus Helicopters aims to achieve a “significant reduction” in the lead time for the H175 over the coming years, bringing it down from around 18 months at present.
One programme enjoying one of its strongest years on record is the H225, which has so far garnered at least 65 orders from both civil and military customers – a notable rebound from 2023 when no sales were recorded.
Thome forecasts a “high double-digit growth” in output in the period to 2028 but is confident that that the “significant lead time” ahead of deliveries starting in earnest grants it breathing space to “prepare the supply chain”.
“We don’t see a particular difficulty there,” he adds.
