AgustaWestland, a Finmeccanica company, is pleased to announce that it has signed an agreement with Shanghai Zenisun Investment Group of China which is expected to lead to the appointment of Shanghai Zenisun as an official non-exclusive distributor for AgustaWestland civil helicopters in China.

The agreement includes a commitment for the AgustaWestland Family of new generation helicopters comprising five AW169 light intermediate 4.5-tonne class, five AW139 intermediate twin and five AW189 8-tonne class twin engine helicopters.

Shanghai Zenisun Investment Group is a large conglomerate corporation which focuses on real estate and general aviation. Specialising in helicopter sales and operations in China since 2006, the company has been in this sector through three of its subsidiaries (Shanghai Kingwing General Aviation Co. Ltd, Sino-US Intercontinental Helicopter Investment Co. Ltd, and Shanghai Zenisun General Aviation Airport Development Co. Ltd) for the last seven years, providing a one-stop service for helicopter purchase, import, operation, management, support & training as well as airport construction.

Emilio Dalmasso, Senior Vice President Commercial Business Unit, AgustaWestland said “We are delighted to have Shanghai Zenisun, a major operator in the important Chinese market, as our partner. This agreement marks the entry of the AgustaWestland Family of new generation helicopters into the Chinese civil helicopter market continuing the success of this new approach to fleet management.”

The 15 helicopters will satisfy a range of mission requirements, including VIP transport duties. The agreement marks a major achievement for AgustaWestland in an important civil helicopter market which shows huge potential and where the company has progressively strengthened its presence. AgustaWestland has over 40 helicopters in service or on order in the Chinese market. With this latest agreement, AgustaWestland is well positioned to benefit from the growing range of opportunities expected in China in the future and it allows Shanghai Zenisun Investment Group to play an greater role in this market, leveraging on the AgustaWestland Family advantage.

The AgustaWestland Family possesses the same high performance flight characteristics and safety features as well as sharing a common cockpit layout, design philosophy and maintenance concept. This commonality allows more effective operations for customers operating helicopter fleets across the 4 to 8.5 tonne categories.

Over 720 AW139s have been ordered by more than 200 customers worldwide, making it the benchmark and by far the best selling helicopter in its class. The other members of the AgustaWestland Family, the AW169 and AW189, have already achieved more than 80 and 70 sales respectively.