More than one in five rotorcraft operators in China plan to buy a new helicopter in the next five years, according to the 20^th annual Honeywell Turbine-Powered, Civilian Helicopter Purchase Outlook presented by Andy Gill, a Honeywell Asia-Pacific senior director, at ABACE 2018. Released in February at Heli-Expo in the U.S., the outlook found 21 percent of respondents said they would either replace or expand their fleet with a new helicopter by the end of 2022, compared to the 12 percent figure of intent to purchase seen in the 2016 outlook.

In Asia-Pacific as a whole, more than 18 percent of operators plan to buy a new helicopter over the next five years, according to Honeywell (Booth H1115), an increase of one percent over the 2017 outlook’s numbers. Light single-engine and medium twin-engine helicopters grab the majority of the intended purchases, each capturing about 35 percent of the projected sales among respondents who expressed a category preference.