As part of Eurocopter’s Vision 2020 to achieve a balanced portfolio with emphasis on growing the Support & Services line of business, its South East Asia subsidiary based in Singapore will serve as a hub for the Asia Pacific and Middle East regions, to provide training, major inspection and heavy structural repairs for the medium twin-engine Dauphin family of helicopters.

Singapore, 16 February 2012

On the occasion of the Singapore Airshow 2012, Eurocopter South East Asia (ESEA) unveiled its new Dauphin AS365 N3/N3+ full-flight simulator (FFS), which is housed at the ESEA Training Centre. At the same time, ESEA also received certification from Eurocopter to be a regional MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) hub for the Dauphin family of helicopters.

Both these programs will place ESEA in a position to offer operators of the Dauphin fleet in the Asia Pacific and Middle East regions with a full suite of support and services, from training to major inspections and heavy structural repairs.

Presenting the Regional MRO Hub certificate to ESEA, Eurocopter Executive Vice President for Support and Services, Derek Sharples, reiterated that “the deployment of training and MRO capabilities close to customers will help to achieve our goal of maximizing fleet safety, mission availability and offering best value for money. To this end, Eurocopter has already set up 21 training centres and has over 95 repair centres around the world. The regional hub is our latest move to further improve our service offerings.”

ESEA’s experience in maintenance and repair work on the Dauphin has been developed over the years. In addition, its Eurocopter-approved design office continually contributes to the development of tools and jigs that will enable ESEA to offer a wide range of cost-effective solutions for major structural repairs.

“The Dauphin has been a very successful product range in Eurocopter, and is the natural choice for many operators in Asia when selecting a medium twin-engine aircraft,” noted Norbert Ducrot, Eurocopter’s Senior Vice President of Asia. “Countries like Japan, China and Malaysia operate the Dauphins for a variety of missions, from public services to offshore operations. With the hub providing specific specialized services which till now have only been available in Europe, ESEA will be able to provide additional support to the network of Eurocopter subsidiaries in this region, enhancing the subsidiaries’ relationship with their customers.”

Besides specialized major services for Dauphin, ESEA will continue to offer the full line of support and services for Eurocopter’s entire range of helicopters. As a technical hub for Asia, ESEA offers 24/7 hotline technical support and on-site technical assistance, as well as a range of innovative web-based tools to improve user productivity and enhance customer satisfaction.

“The selection of ESEA as a regional hub reflects our ability to provide state-of-the-art facilities and technical expertise,” added Bernhard Brenner, Eurocopter South East Asia President. “Our investment and focus on specialized services such as full-flight simulator training, design office work and development of technical solutions, have put us in good stead to meet the future challenges in the wider Asian market.”

The AS365 N3/N3+ FFS at ESEA will be Eurocopter’s 17th FFS around the world, and is slated to begin operations in April 2012. In its international MRO capabilities deployment plan, the designation of ESEA as an MRO hub will be Eurocopter’s first in Asia, after this concept was introduced with American Eurocopter in November 2011.

Source and photo: EADS