Milestone in Dauphin helicopter deliveries

Eurocopter has announced the delivery of its 1,000th Helicopter from its Dauphin family to India’s Pawan Hans Helicopters

Pawan Hans’ milestone helicopter is an AS365
N3 version, configured for offshore oil and gas drilling missions, and it
brings the Indian operator’s fleet to a total of 35 Dauphins.

Marking the 25-year association of
Eurocopter with its key Indian customer at today’s delivery were Eurocopter president
& CEO Lutz Bertling; and Sanjiv Bahl the executive director of Pawan Hans;
who were joined by Joseph Saporito, Eurocopter’s executive vice president for
Commercial Programs; and Cécile Arnaud the sales & marketing director of
Eurocopter India Pvt Ltd.

“The 1,000th Dauphin delivery is an historic
moment for Eurocopter, and it is particularly appropriate that we are sharing
the event with Pawan Hans, which is the civil operator of reference for this
highly capable helicopter,” Bertling stated. “Eurocopter is fully committed to
supporting Pawan Hans’ continued success, which includes our creation of the
Eurocopter India subsidiary, and the reinforcement of our services network in India.”

“The Eurocopter Dauphin is perfectly
tailored to our needs, having successfully served us for 25 years,” Sanjiv Bahl
said. “Looking ahead, we are relying on the Dauphin for future growth, as the
version N3 offers very good operating performance in terms of speed, power with
long range capabilities, noise reduction and customer comfort. Further we have
acquired significant operating expertise in terms of operations and maintenance
of Dauphin series with the state of the art workshops in Mumbai. We have highly
experienced pilots and skilled technical manpower that work to our stringent
safety standards and achieve high fleet utilization with excellent
serviceability track record. Dauphin today is the flagship fleet for Pawan Hans
due to its proven track record in offshore and onshore sectors with its
reliable operations. We look forward to building on Eurocopter’s know-how and
support in terms of setting up MRO in India and in delivering the best
value to our customers.”

In addition to its own operations, Pawan
Hans has an agreement with Eurocopter for propose creation of MRO (maintenance,
repair and overhaul) facility in India to service Dauphin series
helicopters.

“The Dauphin is a true success story, and
has directly contributed to our leadership position in the rotary-wing aircraft
industry,” Eurocopter’s Saporito said. “It also represents our company’s
continuous innovation, including use of the Fenestron – which provides
significantly higher operating safety levels, enhanced flight control, along
with lower sound and vibration levels.”