Press Release

Issued by Asian Sky Group.

February 26, 2018

Hong Kong business aviation consulting firm Asian Sky Group (ASG) is releasing its highly-anticipated Asia Pacific Civil Helicopter Fleet Report YE 2017, sponsored by Waypoint Leasing, coinciding with HAI Heli Expo in Las Vegas (Feb 26-March 1).

This is the fifth consecutive year ASG has produced the report, featuring a detailed breakdown of the Asia-Pacific helicopter fleet (excluding pistons) by fleet size, replacement cost, mission segments, size categories and OEM. The YE 2017 report includes a section on offshore activity, discussing the continued impact of the oil and gas downturn on the civil helicopter market, as well as an in-depth section on the Asia-Pacific's fastest-growing civil helicopter market, mainland China. Also included is a section on the helicopter leasing market, providing a breakdown of leased helicopters by lessor and country. New to this year's report is a section on the fast-growing emergency medical services segment (EMS), which showcases the Asia-Pacific's fleet by country, model and operator.

Also featured in this year's Asia Pacific Civil Helicopter Fleet Report are a number of profiles on key companies working in the rotary industry in the region. Independent helicopter lessor Waypoint Leasing spoke on the company's expansion into the Asia-Pacific region and new office in Hong Kong, along with its forecast for years to come. Spectrum Aeromed, designer and developer of air ambulance medical interiors for fixed and rotary-wing, shared the process of providing EMS solutions to operators. Shanghai-based general aviation company Kingwing Aviation discussed its impressive plan for operating 80 EMS helicopters by 2018 and Beijing Red Cross Emergency Rescue Center explained the need for helicopters in the city's rescue services.

Other highlights of the report include:

- The Asia-Pacific region's civil turbine helicopter fleet stood at 4,086 rotorcraft by the end of 2017, an increase of 3.9% from yearend 2016.

- The bulk of the Asia-Pacific fleet continues to operate in four countries: Australia, Japan, Mainland China and New Zealand, collectively home to 62% of the region's total civil turbine helicopter fleet.

- Mainland China, the leading regional growth driver for the past three years, added 86 helicopters in 2017, an increase of 17.4% y-o-y.

- The Asia-Pacific fleet is utilized in a wide-range of mission profiles, with slightly more than half of the fleet operating in multi-mission roles and the rest evenly dispersed among the corporate, offshore, law enforcement, SAR and EMS markets.

- When considering replacement cost, multi-mission drops to under 40% and the offshore segment becomes significantly larger, at 21% of the total fleet value.

- EMS is currently the smallest segment of the market (6% by units and 8% by replacement cost), but is expected to be among the fastest growing, while the offshore segment should start to experience a recovery as the oil and gas sector improves.

- The 'big four' OEMs (Airbus, Bell, Leonardo and Sikorsky) overall make up over 85% of the fleet, while Airbus retains the largest market share in the region, with over 40% of the installed fleet.

“With each issue of the Asia Pacific Civil Helicopter Fleet Report ASG strives to report and detail the latest trends in the region's civil helicopter market,” says ASG managing director, Jeffrey Lowe. “In this edition, we've featured an in-depth look at the emerging EMS market, which is currently very relevant to the industry, and provided several other special sections that industry members will hopefully find insightful. This year's Report is, as always, a great source of information that we're happy to provide as an essential resource to the whole industry. We are also extremely grateful to Waypoint Leasing for its sponsorship of the Report.”