AgustaWestland, a Finmeccanica company, is pleased to announce that Sloane Helicopters Ltd of the United Kingdom has signed a contract for the purchase of two GrandNew light twin and two AW169 light intermediate helicopters. This contract demonstrates the continuing success achieved by the AgustaWestland range of light twin helicopters in the UK market as well as the rapidly growing success of the new generation AW169 in this market.

Sloane Helicopters has been supporting AgustaWestland’s UK and Ireland sales since 1996. The Distribution Agreement with Sloane is benefitting its customers by dramatically reducing delivery times which also helps AgustaWestland to maintain its position as market leader in the VIP and corporate transport market in the UK and Ireland.

Emilio Dalmasso, AgustaWestland’s Senior VP Commercial Business, said “This latest contract with Sloane Helicopters confirms the continuing success of the GrandNew in the UK market and the very positive response by customers to the all new AW169, the only new helicopter in its class in over 30 years.”

Jeremy Awenat, Managing Director of Sloane Helicopters, said: “This commitment underlines our confidence in the AgustaWestland product range and in particular the significant impact that we know the AW169 will have on all sectors of the UK and Ireland market. VIP GrandNews are already successfully operating within the UK and the first EMS GrandNew will be operational in the UK in the summer. ”

The GrandNew features the most modern developments in avionics while retaining the outstanding characteristics of the Grand. The GrandNew is the first type certified light twin (CS/JAR/FAR 27) to enter service with a new EFIS featuring Synthetic Vision and the first helicopter in this class on the market fully compliant with the latest advanced global positioning system-based navigation requirements for all weather operations. Orders for more than 320 helicopters from the Grand series have been placed by almost 200 customers in nearly 40 countries worldwide, to perform many missions including VIP/corporate transport, passenger transport, EMS, SAR, harbour pilot shuttle, maritime patrol and water pollution monitoring.

More than 70 AW169 helicopters have now been ordered for a wide range of missions including corporate transport, air ambulance, law enforcement, utility and offshore transport. With all four prototypes already flying, the AW169 is on schedule to achieve certification in 2014. A versatile, new generation twin engine light intermediate category helicopter, the 4.5 tonne AW169 has been designed in response to the growing market demand for an aircraft that delivers high performance, meets all the latest safety standards and has multi-role capabilities and state-of-the-art technology.

The AW169 is part of the AgustaWestland family of new generation helicopters that includes the AW139 and AW189 models, which posses the same high performance flight characteristics and safety features as well as sharing a common cockpit layout, design philosophy and maintenance concept. This commonality will allow more effective operations for customers operating helicopter fleets across the 4 to 8.5 tonne categories.

Sloane Helicopters is also an AgustaWestland Authorised Service Centre, providing maintenance and support services. Additionally Sloane Helicopters is a Type Rating Transition centre for AgustaWestland helicopters in the UK. The distribution agreement allows Sloane Helicopters to market and sell AgustaWestland GrandNew in the UK and Ireland for corporate and VIP operations.