Fourth AW139 VIP To Join UK & Ireland Corporate Fleet

AgustaWestland, a Finmeccanica company, is pleased to announce the sale of the fourth AW139 intermediate twin helicopter for corporate transport in the UK & Ireland. This latest sale continues the success of the AW139 in the UK & Ireland corporate helicopter market in the last two years. The helicopter will be delivered in 2014 to an undisclosed customer. Almost 40 AW139 helicopters have been sold across Europe for VIP, corporate and government transport roles, making it the new benchmark in its weight class for executive and passenger transport. As  the only helicopter in its class to meet all the latest certification standards the AW139 is proving a popular replacement for older designs in a market, where safety, comfort and performance are the foremost considerations.

The AW139 delivers best-in-class performance with a maximum cruise speed of 165 knots (306 kph), a range in excess of 500 nm (927 km), endurance of 5 hours and superior hover performance. With its power reserve, the AW139 assures Category “A” (Class 1) superior performance from a helipad (elevated or at ground level) at maximum take-off weight. With the largest passenger cabin in its class the AW139 can accommodate up to 15 passengers or six to ten passengers is a number of spacious and comfortable VIP seating arrangements. The six large cabin windows provide passengers with a excellent view from the cabin with access via sliding doors or a hinged door. A wide range of customer specified optional equipment is available on the AW139 including audio visual equipment, telecommunications and refreshments stowage. The baggage compartment provides 3.4 m3 (120 ft3) of easily accessible storage with access from external doors and also the cabin if required.

The AW139’s modern design ensures ease of maintenance and high availability due to reduced numbers of components, easy access to all the main systems by ground technicians, extended life-cycles for critical components and advanced diagnostics technology. European customers can also undertake a range of training courses on the AW139 Level D Full Flight Simulators located at AgustaWestland’s ‘A. Marchetti’ Training Academy in Sesto Calende, Italy. The AW139 helicopter is part of AgustaWestland’s family of new generation helicopters that also includes the AW169 and AW189. These helicopters all possess the same high-performance flight characteristics and safety features whilst sharing the same common cockpit concept and design philosophy. This approach facilitates synergies for operators of more than one of these models in areas such as training, maintenance and support. Almost 720 AW139s have been sold in 60 countries to over 190 customers so far for many roles  including VIP/corporate transport, scheduled passenger transport, law enforcement, fire fighting, offshore transport, search and rescue, emergency medical service, disaster relief and maritime patrol. Nearly 700,000 flight hours have been logged by the world AW139 fleet so far.