Mexico has ordered six AgustaWestland AW109SP GrandNew helicopters for VVIP work in their Presidential flight. SEDENA (Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional), the government agency responsible for the Army and Air Force, says the total contracted value is 776 million pesos – about $63.1M at today’s prices. The Presidential fleet is tasked with flying the President of the Republic and the members cabinet. In 2012 that accounted for 3,439 flights with a total flying time of 2,306 hours, although it is not clear how much that was impacted by the November 2011 accident involving a Super Puma (see details)

This new fleet will replace six of the current fleet of eight helicopters – in simple terms the Pumas and Super Pumas acquired between 1978 and 1993. The two EC225s bought in the last 7 years will be retained for times when larger aircraft are required. The overall budget for aircraft for the Mexican Air Force was reported by the Reforma newspaper in February as being 26,350 million pesos (approx $2.1 billion), which they said included a figure equating to around 22% of the total for a Boeing 787 Dreamliner for the President. Other capital projects include the modernisation of Air Base 1 at Santa Lucia.

The AW109SP was chosen over the S76D, EC135T2 and the Bell 429.

Jeremy Parkin – HeliHub.com