Waypoint Leasing have announced that they have closed on a multi-aircraft agreement with Omni Helicopters International S.A. (“OHI”), a strategic partnership between Stirling Square Capital Partners and Omni Group.  The aircraft are operating for Omni Taxi Aereo (OTA), Brazil’s largest helicopter service operator to the offshore industry by fleet size.   All aircraft operate in support of long-term contracts within the offshore oil and gas sector in Brazil – beyond that no numbers were quoted on how many of particular helicopter types are involved, and nor did they give the top line valuation of the deal.

HeliHub.com enquired whether Airbus H225 msn 2955 was part of the deal, and Waypoint confirmed it was not.  This particular airframe was delivered from the factory in France to Airbus subsidiary Vector Aerospace in the UK on 20th November in full Omni colours for storage.  It is not clear why a brand new aircraft might be put into immediate storage – but we can allow our readers to speculate.

Waypoint CEO Ed Washecka said of the Omni deal  “Despite the current market conditions, we think there’s significant long-term demand in Brazil and look forward to supporting Omni as it continues to grow worldwide.”

Rui Almeida, President of OHI is quoted with saying “It is important for us to have a financial partner that understands our business. The Waypoint team is made up of former operators who can relate to our issues and understand our needs. This is a new lessor relationship for us and we were impressed with their knowledge, commercial approach and speed of execution.”

Waypoint stated today that their asset portfolio of 120 aircraft is worth over $1.4 billion, with fleet operating for 16 customers in 26 countries.  They also have firm and option orders over the next five years for 125+ helicopters valued at more than $1.7 billion.

Jeremy Parkin – HeliHub.com