Page 18 - AAA MARCH - APRIL 2013 Online Magazine

FEATURE CHINA HELICOPTERS

China’s Choppers

on the Rise

Despite Shanghai’s Hilton having a helipad for more than two decades,
it was only recently used for the first time, when the hotel opened up
the space for events. The move is symbolic of China’s tenuous launch
into helicopter aviation, but with the recent relaxation of airspace

regulations, things are finally starting to take off. By Rachel Sullivan

China has lagged signifiCantly since January 2012 (see page 19) is
behind the rest of the world in embracing fuelling what could be the start of a
helicopters for non-military uses. While booming era. “Just based on Eurocopter’s
oil and gas companies have been using own statistics, we can already see the
helicopters to support offshore drilling upward trend happening.”
operations since the mid-1980s, it wasn’t Boulnois adds, “With the general
until the early 2000s that the first search aviation sector booming, it is estimated
and rescue (SAR) choppers were used to that China will have more than 500
monitor coastal areas. helicopters by 2015; the fleet could exceed
“The helicopter and general aviation 1,000 aircraft over the next 10 years once
market in China is still very young the airspace regulations are relaxed.”
compared to the US or Europe due to air He highlights Eurocopter’s sales
traffic restrictions,” says Bruno Boulnois, numbers to make his point. “We used to
CEO of Eurocopter China. “Today around sell on average about five to 10 helicopters
400 civil helicopters are flying in the a year, which has more than doubled in
ABOVE: Helicopters are
very useful for missions country, relatively few compared to 12,000 2011–2012,” he says, adding that they
in areas where the terrain in the US and 8,000 in Europe – therefore are anticipating this number to increase
and weather conditions showing a huge potential for growth.” to above 50 units a year, with the final
may make covering large He explains the gradual relaxation figure being dependent on the rate of the
amounts of ground difficult of the low-altitude airspace regulations opening of the skies.
18 ASIAN AIRLINES & AIRPORTS MARCH / APRIL 2013 WWW.ASIANAIRLINES-AIRPORTS.COM