Middle East’s first five-bladed H145 delivered

Airbus Helicopters has delivered the first five-bladed H145 to leaser Milestone Aviation and Oman’s sole commercial helicopter service provider, Al-Sharqiya Aviation.

The new helicopter will allow Al-Sharqiya Aviation to further expand its service offering and provide reliable onshore and offshore passenger transport in addition to HEMS (helicopter emergency medical services) throughout the sultanate.

Tariq Al Barwani, CEO of Al-Sharqiya Aviation, said: “Al-Sharqiya Aviation is very proud to be the first operator of the five-bladed H145 variant in the Middle East. The on-time arrival of the helicopter was critical and we thank Airbus and Milestone for their support.”

The new version of Airbus’ H145 light twin-engine helicopter was unveiled at Heli-Expo 2019 in Atlanta in March. This latest upgrade adds a new, five-bladed rotor to the multi-mission H145, increasing the useful load of the helicopter by 150kg. The simplicity of the new bearing-less main rotor design will simplify maintenance operations, while the high-mounted tail boom and wide opening clamshell doors provide improved access to the H145’s spacious cabin, according to the manufacturer.

Axel Humpert, head of the H145 programme at Airbus Helicopters, added: “We’re honoured that the H145 will enter into service for HEMS missions in Oman soon. The hot and high performance and increased useful load the new five-bladed version make it the perfect choice for those missions in the Middle East.”

Airbus has more than 1,515 H145 family helicopters in service around the world, logging a total of more than six million flight hours. For EMS alone, there are more than 470 helicopters of the H145 family conducting air rescue missions worldwide.