Weststar Maintenance has taken delivery of its first helicopter in its new hangar at Den Helder airport. The AW189 arrived from Malaysia via the Belgian port of Zeebrugge after an approximate 50 day journey at sea.

The AW189 will stay at Den Helder Airport undergoing maintenance and being prepared for offshore helicopter service, before being deployed for operations in Africa, scheduled to begin in September 2021. The aircraft will be deregistered from the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) and re-registered with EASA.

The helicopter served in Miri, Malaysia for the past four years for multinational oil and gas companies, namely Petronas, Shell and JX Nippon. It is the latest addition to Weststar Europe's existing fleet of five AW139 and three AW169 helicopters.

Weststar Europe is a subsidiary of Weststar Aviation Services, a Malaysia-based company owned and led by its founder, Tan Sri Dr Syed Azman Syed Ibrahim. Weststar Europe is the regional office that forms the expansion of Weststar in Europe. Weststar NDD is the operational wing of the group and Weststar Maintenance was established for the sole purpose of obtaining EASA Part 145 certification in the Netherlands. With this certification it will be able to provide necessary maintenance services to its fleet of helicopters.