French helicopter operator HeliDax and Airbus Helicopters have signed the first-ever HCare Classics support contract to optimise the availability of HeliDax’s H120 fleet. HCare Classics is Airbus’ new support package entirely dedicated to meeting the support needs of the company’s out-of-production legacy helicopters.HeliDax, the rotary flight training contractor to the French and Belgian military as well as France’s Gendarmerie, operates a fleet of 36 H120s to deliver both basic and advanced flight training. Since the beginning of it’s partnership with the French government in 2006 Helidax’s fleet have accumulated 246,000 hours in the process of training several generations of pilots, translating to an average utilisation of 22,000 hours annually.
HeliDax’s fleet is the largest in-service H120 fleet in the world today. With eight years remaining in the pilot training programme contract, HeliDax selected HCare Classics to benefit from the OEM’s guaranteed support performance. “To continue guaranteeing our fleet and service availability until the end of our contract with the government in 2030, it is essential to have a strong commitment from our major partner, Airbus Helicopters, in terms of support and obsolescence monitoring,” says Christian Prigentt, director of HeliDax. “The HCare Classics contract secures our supply chain and replaces our acquisition of safety stocks, whose quantities are based on estimates only without taking into account future logistical supply chain risks. In this respect, and thanks to its service, which is paid per flight hour, this contract will contribute directly to our management of maintenance costs, until the end of our agreement with the French government.” Adding his thoughts Christoph Zammert, Executive Vice President of Customer Support & Services at Airbus Helicopters said:“HeliDax is a great example of the many customers who continue to operate legacy helicopters to perform essential missions, and we’re honored to extend our relationship with them via this support contract. Through HCare Classics, Airbus Helicopters secures the supply chain and ensures sufficient provision of spare parts, as well as other support options specifically tailored to meet the needs of these unique operators. One example of how we approach the supply chain is by parting out aircraft as a means to inject parts into the pool, thus adding an important lever for sustainable life-cycle management of our fleet.”
