Amidst widespread softness in the global civil helicopter market in 2014, Airbus announced a modest decline in deliveries and a continuation of its overall dominance in the sector with 44 percent market share worldwide and a 52 percent share in the U.S. For the year, Airbus Helicopters posted revenues of $7.28 billion and delivered 471 helicopters, modestly down from 497 in 2013; it booked 402 orders, 115 of them in the U.S. Of the total orders booked, 100 were for heavy helicopters such as the recently renamed H225.

Airbus Helicopters CEO Guillame Faury told a Heli-Expo press conference that the company is accelerating its focus on offering customers safety improvements and better product support. New safety initiatives include the development of the first flight crew operations manual (FCOM) for helicopters as well as making the Appareo Vision 1000 cockpit image and data recording system standard on new helicopters including the H125, H130, H135 and H145 now and all of its helicopters by the end of 2015.

Faury also unveiled a new comprehensive warranty program called H Care on all new helicopters that extends for three years or 2,000 hours with labor included in the first year. He said that product support metrics have improved, citing a 98-percent on time delivery rate for planned spares by the end of 2014 and a halving of the late spares delivery rate. Faury said the company's parts-by-the-hour contract prices have been made “more attractive.”

Going forward, Faury said that Airbus Helicopters has set some important customer service benchmarks including delivering planned spares requested at least 15 days out 100 percent on time; having all customers visited by customer support managers within the year; and instituting a single point of contact for customer support worldwide 365/24/7. “We want customers to choose Airbus for its level of customer service,” Faury said.

Faury said the new H160 medium twin Airbus Helicopters unveiled here Tuesday is a change agent for the company. That helicopter is expected to make first flight later this year and gain certification in 2018.