Gulf Helicopters has added an AW139 to its fleet. The rotorcraft recently arrived in Doha in Qatar. “The AW139 is our most popular type; we own and operate 21 of these machines, and we have been doing so since 2007,” says senior secretary Ahmed Hellal. “Based on client demand, the AW139 is the most desirable type for oil and gas operations, and we have all the expertise in maintaining and operating the type. We are also an authorised training and maintenance centre for Leonardo.”

The core business of Gulf Helicopters is offshore oil and gas. It currently flies in Qatar, north Africa, Turkey, Malta and India. It recently flew a fair-tip replacement task for one of its clients in Qatar using a Bell 412.

Hellal continues: “Like all other operators in the aviation industry, we were affected by the pandemic due to low flying hours in most of the bases and even no flying at all in some other bases during Q1 and Q2 2020. However, we managed to control costs efficiently during this period and benefitted from non-aviation activities such as the MRO business to compensate any drop in revenues. We plan to continue expanding the MRO business in 2021 by adding more in-house capabilities, in addition to the usual aviation activities of the company."

Gulf Helicopters has also been appointed as a Designated Maintenance Facility (DMF) by Pratt & Whitney Canada Corporation for the region (Middle East and parts of Africa) which includes Qatar, Jordan, Oman, Kuwait, Lebanon, Turkey, Pakistan, Nigeria, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Iraq and Egypt.

The DMF will allow GHC to provide onsite support to customers in the region and reduce its costs. This will further facilitate GHC to be a go-to maintenance provider for aircraft maintenance, engine maintenance and component repair and overhaul.