Helicopters Continued Growth In 2024

Airbus Helicopters announced it logged 455 gross orders in 2024, indicating a steady market growth and strong performance for its light, light twin-engine, and heavy helicopters. Orders were from 182 customers in 42 countries, with delivery of 361 helicopters.

The Super Puma program had a strong showing in both the civil and parapublic as well as military markets with 58 orders coming from the German Bundespolizei (police), the Japan Coast Guard, the Ministry of Defense of the Netherlands, and the Romanian Ministry of National Defense.

Bruno Even, CEO of Airbus Helicopters said, “Airbus Helicopters’ order intake in 2024, with an increase bordering 10 percent in units for the second year in a row, highlights its stable growth in a complex global environment. I would like to thank our customers for continuing to place their trust in Airbus Helicopters in 2024.”

The Block 1 upgrade for the NH90 was launched in 2024 along with the start of flight testing for France’s Special Forces Standard 2 configuration and the delivery of the first Standard 3 configuration to the Spanish Air Force.

The H145 and H145M program garnered many new defense and security customers including the Brunei Air Force, the Belgian Ministry of Defense, the Indonesian Air Force, the Bahraini Police Aviation Command, and the Irish Ministry of Defense.

Even continued, “Defence and security is a strategic priority at Airbus Helicopters. We are proud to support our customers with helicopters that enable them to protect and serve their nations as we saw in 2024 with the U.S. National Guard’s Lakota supporting disaster relief efforts after Hurricane Helene and the H135 and NH90 in the flooding in Valencia, Spain.

“We continue to innovate and expand the mission capabilities that we offer - we integrated Flexrotor into our UAS portfolio, we demonstrated crewed - uncrewed teaming capabilities with the VSR700 and an H130, and we are laying the groundwork for the European Next Generation Rotorcraft through dedicated concept studies.”

FMI:  www.airbus.com/