Moscow Helicopter Ban Continues to Hold Back Market
Airbus Helicopters believes lifting restrictions on private helicopter flights over Moscow would significantly boost rotorcraft orders in Russia.
If Russian authorities permit open access to the airspace above Moscow to private and corporate helicopter operations, rotorcraft sales into Russia would increase by between 15 and 20 aircraft from the 2013 total of 28 units. This was the prediction of Airbus Helicopters’s Russian commercial director Artyom Fetisov, speaking at the Business Aviation Forum held September 3 in Moscow on the eve of the JetExpo show. According to him, there are already around 150 Airbus Helicopters aircraft in the Russian fleet and most of these are owned by non-governmental operators. Meanwhile, a growing number of Russian companies have secured approval by both the local aviation authority and Airbus to provide technical support for the European rotorcraft.
