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Sharjah’s Airfreight Aviation, Russian Helicopters Form JV

DUBAI — Sharjah-based Airfreight Aviation and Russian Helicopters on Tuesday formed a joint venture company with the aim to offer affordable repair and other services to Middle East operators, a top executive of Russian company said.

International Rotorcraft Services, the new joint venture announced during the Dubai Airshow, will service Russian-made rotorcraft at its base in Sharjah and Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul centres all over the region. The new joint venture will facilitate the interaction of design engineers and dealers with operators and offer material and technical support to local operators.

“Initial capital of the company is $400,000 (Dh1.5 million) and we are planning to raise it to $10 million (Dh36.78 million) next year,” Andrei Shibitov, chief executive officer of Russian Helicopters told Khaleej Times.

Major capabilities of the new joint venture include overhaul, quality maintenance and repair services, airworthiness support and optimisation of the fleet operating costs, modernisation, upgrade, field team support, components repair and spare parts provision for Russian-made helicopters in the Middle East region.

“The most important thing for us is to make all services more affordable for our customers in the region,” Shibitov said.

He said 600 Russian-made rotorcraft are currently operating in the Middle East and North Africa. Russian Helicopters will deliver at least 50 Mi-17 helicopters to the region in 2009-2010, and the estimate is 100 —120 more deliveries of Russian-made rotorcraft by 2015. “Last year we sold a total of 169 helicopters worldwide and this year we are expecting it to touch 180,” he said.

The company reported a $2 billion net profit in 2008 and is confident about earning more in profits compared to last year. “Keeping in mind the current market situation we expect 10 per cent increase in sales by the end of this year,” Shibitov said.

Being a rotorcraft manufacturer and dealer in rotorcraft and related services, Russian Helicopters seeks to increase deliveries to the Middle East and ensure reliable helicopter operations, he said.

The Middle East contributes around 20 per cent of the total sales of Russian Helicopters, according to Shibitov. The company aims for a 5-10 per cent annual growth up to 2015, he said.

“We carry out our work in strict accordance with the schedule. This allows us to deliver helicopters on time to operators in different regions of the world, including countries of the Middle East.”

“We are very keen to boost the operations efficiency of local operators Russian-made helicopters and to have their fleet ready for any mission at any time,” Sergey Krapivtsev, President, Airfreight Aviation Ltd, said.

“We at Russian Helicopters are establishing multiple joint ventures and cooperating tightly with local service centres to maintain and modernise Russian-made helicopters in many countries worldwide. This helps to avoid the need to transfer helicopters to Russia for maintenance and goes in line with company efforts to cut its partners’ expenses. Servicing Russian-made helicopters is becoming easier and more affordable everywhere,” Shibitov said.

The company has another partnership in India for all the facilities and similar facility will be started in China next year, he said.

abdulbasit@khaleejtimes.com