Milestone Aviation Group and Eurocopter Enter $480 Million Deal

Eurocopter and Milestone Aviation have signed a EUR 362 million (US $480 million) for the delivery of 16 EC225 aircraft valued at and will be delivered over five years, starting in 2013. Deployed worldwide for civil and military search and rescue, Eurocopter’s EC225 offers superior speed, range, payload, optimal safety and reliability and has logged more than four million flight hours in operations around the globe. The EC225 is perfectly adapted to missions in severe weather, as it is designed to meet the highest safety standard levels with system redundancy, a highly capable automatic flight control system, and the capability for full deicing – which allows flight in all known icing conditions. Lutz Bertling, Eurocopter’s President and CEO, said, “The EC225 is a remarkable aircraft and we are excited to be able to offer it to a broader audience of potential operators through our partnership with Milestone,” “By removing the capital hurdle associated with ownership we are hopeful that we can introduce the EC225 to more operators around the world”. William Kelly, Milestone’s CEO, said, “We look forward to working closely with our partners as we place these helicopters with high-quality operators around the world providing mission critical services in the oil and gas industry, parapublic services, mining and search and rescue”.