AgustaWestland, a Finmeccanica company, is pleased to announce that it has signed a multi-year multi-aircraft agreement with Waypoint Leasing LLC (“Waypoint”) for GrandNew, AW169, AW139 and AW189 helicopters. The agreement signed today at Heli-Expo by Ed Washecka, Waypoint Leasing’s CEO, and Emilio Dalmasso, AgustaWestland’s Senior VP Commercial Business, includes an initial firm contract for four helicopters.
“It starts with the customer — our model is built around delivering tailored solutions for clients,” said Ed Washecka, Waypoint Leasing’s CEO said at the signing ceremony. “We are very pleased by the response from AgustaWestland — their product line offers the capability our customers require and the performance that they demand.  I look forward to a long, successful relationship with AgustaWestland as Waypoint Leasing expands its global offering for customers.”

Emilio Dalmasso, AgustaWestland’s Senior VP Commercial Business added “The signing of this agreement with Waypoint Leasing will allow Waypoint to offer its customers the most modern range of high performance helicopters available in the market today covering light, intermediate and medium twin engine markets. We look forward to working with and having a long and successful business relationship with Waypoint, as one of the world’s leading helicopter leasing companies.”
The AW169, AW139 and AW189 form AgustaWestland’s Family of new generation helicopters covering the 4 to 8-tonne weight classes. These helicopters all possess the same high performance flight characteristics and safety features whilst sharing the same common cockpit concept and design philosophy. This approach will deliver real cost savings in areas such as training, maintenance and support for operators having two or three of the models in their fleets.

Almost 690 AW139 helicopters have been ordered so far by nearly 190 customers in almost 60 countries to perform various roles including offshore transport, corporate and passenger transport, VIP transport, EMS/SAR, law enforcement, utility and several other roles.

The AW169 is an all-new 4.5-tonne class helicopter that was launched in July 2010 and will achieve civil certification in 2014. More than 70 aircraft have been ordered so far by customers around the world.

The AW189 is an all-new 8-tonne class helicopter optimised for offshore transportation and SAR missions. Since its launch in June 2011 over 60 orders and options have been placed by many of the world’s leading helicopter operators making the market leader in its category. The programme is on schedule to achieve civil certification in the second half of 2013.

The GrandNew is the world’s most advanced light twin-engine helicopter featuring a new digital glass-cockpit and a composite material fuselage. The Synthetic Vision EFIS and a new 4-axis digital duplex autopilot provide the pilots with situational awareness and flight management capabilities never achieved before on the light twin class.

Waypoint Leasing is a global helicopter lessor providing aircraft and financing solutions to the world’s helicopter operators as well as aircraft management services to helicopter owners. Waypoint’s founders developed their experience as helicopter operators, and are familiar with the difficulties of supporting demanding end user clients in challenging environments worldwide. Waypoint works collaboratively with helicopter operators worldwide to modernize, grow, and manage their helicopter fleets.  As a full-service lessor, Waypoint offers an array of value-add services via operating leases including fleet planning, revenue analysis, and maintenance support programs.