HeliLux, based in Cardiff, Wales, points out that designing a helicopter fleet can involve trying to balance almost irreconcilable demands and market factors. These include safety, speed, passenger comfort, convenience and smoothness of flight, utility and role flexibility, cost-effectiveness, the actual availability of aircraft and acquisition costs, the JAR OPS maintenance skills on hand locally, baggage capacity, Class A/OEI performance, pilot enjoyment, external lift capability, maintenance and AOG support and fuel efficiency.

HeliLux's Prof. Jeremy Stone says: "As we analysed the market, the two aircraft that best fitted our criteria were the AS355N Twin Squirrel and the Bell 407."

He adds: "The Bell scores highly in the strength of the airframe, AOG support, speed, fully loaded performance and space for a single turbine. No other aircraft balanced our needs and we analysed the AS350 B3, A119 Koala and MD ranges."

The Twin Squirrel scored highly for Class A performance, operating costs and commonality with other aircraft. He says that would-be corporate or private owners seeking to match a helicopter type for purchase to meet their business needs should shop around. "They should speak to operators and pilots - especially extensively to engineers - ask about AOG responses, and don't forget engine support is often very different to airframe support."