Papillon (21 H130s), Heliportugal (nine H125s) and DRF Luftrettung (eight-year extension for up to 60 helicopters) are the latest operators to sign up to Airbus Helicopters' HCare programme. The OEM added 250 helicopters to its HCare Smart and Infinite contracts in 2019, increasing to 2,250 the number of aircraft now covered by a global HCare material management contract. This means 19 per cent of the OEM's worldwide fleet is now covered by HCare.

“The motivation behind our HCare support contracts is to let our customers focus on one thing only: their missions. We aim to take care of everything else, ensuring the highest levels of fleet availability, at the most competitive price. This helps our customers control budgets and stabilise costs, while lowering the administrative burden,” says Christoph Zammert, executive VP of customer support and services at Airbus Helicopters.

Other customers added in 2019 include PHI Health (H125s), Boston Med Flight (HCare Smart), Superior Helicopters (HCare Infinite), and STARS air ambulance (HCare Smart), among others. In North America alone, 78 helicopters joined HCare last year. And of the 58 H225s repurposed in 2019, more than 75% of those already in operation are covered by HCare.

Airbus Helicopters' range of HCare material management services starts out with Easy (on-request catalogue services) and Smart (four by-the-hour options), before progressively building up to Infinite (full availability commitments).

The HCare fleet is composed of almost every helicopter in the Airbus range for missions ranging from emergency medical services and aerial work, to oil and gas, tourism and military operations. Around 95 percent of HCare Smart customers opt to extend their contracts with Airbus.

HCare is Airbus Helicopters' support and service offer, providing superior customer service support in five domains: material management; helicopter MRO and upgrades; technical support; training and flight operations and connected services. As part of this commitment to constantly support customers around the world, experts are available on-call 24/7.