Eurocopter, the world’s leading helicopter manufacturer and part of the EADS Group, has established a new international customer technical support centre, based in Dublin’s International Financial Services Centre.   The creation of Eurocopter International Services (EIS) represents a major step in the development of Eurocopter’s activities in Ireland and will contribute to the achievement of the Group’s Vision 2020 objective.

Patrick Berthier, CEO of Eurocopter International Services, and Donough Tierney, Vice President of EADS International Development, highlighted the willingness of Eurocopter and EADS to strengthen their links with Ireland and support the country’s ambitions to become a centre for specialist support within the global aviation industry.

“The new Dublin operation will give Eurocopter a greater flexibility and efficiency in responding to its customers’ technical support needs,” explained Eurocopter’s Berthier. “Previously, each Eurocopter entity throughout the world had its own technical assistance structure. EIS will centralize the management of this – from recruitment to training, and the follow-up qualification and deployment to client’s sites. This new customer support center will work with Eurocopter subsidiaries throughout the world to support their needs.”

EADS’ Tierney added: “Our company has a long and proud association with Ireland. Airbus has had an aviation leasing business in Ireland for many years, and EADS invested recently in Dublin Aerospace Ltd. a new aircraft maintenance company. It is fantastic to able to be involved with two new businesses. On top of this Ireland is one of the few countries in the world to have a Memorandum of Understanding with the EADS Group.”

Welcoming the establishment of the EADS / Eurocopter technical support centre, IDA Ireland CEO Barry O’Leary said “IDA Ireland worked closely with EADS for a number of years to secure this investment for Ireland.  The company was attracted to Ireland due to the availability of technical and multi-lingual talent, the pro-business environment and the strong track record of international service centres here.

This is great news and builds on the EADS presence in Ireland, which first established its Airbus financial company in the IFSC in 1992.  I would like to congratulate the management team for winning this investment and wish to offer IDA’s continued support as it ramps up its international business from Ireland,” concluded Mr O’Leary.

The new centre will offer a harmonized and reactive response to the company’s customers worldwide. This operational hub providing technical assistance to state-of-the-art helicopters around the world places customer’s expectations at the heart of Eurocopter’s technical support organization.  By gathering the technical representatives in a single entity, Eurocopter offers a reliable and efficient answer to  more complex customer’s needs