
Leonardo continues to evolve its Agusta luxury brand with plans to roll out dedicated helicopter service centers in the coming years. According to Manuela Barbarossa, Leonardo’s head of the VIP/corporate segment, the first location likely will be in Europe with additional locations—at least one on each continent—added across the globe.
Leonardo launched the Agusta brand in 2021 following a similar move by Airbus in 2017 when that company announced Airbus Corporate Helicopters. Formed in Italy in 1923 by Giovanni Agusta, Agusta began manufacturing helicopters under license from other OEMs—most notably Bell in 1952—and began developing its own indigenous helicopter, the Agusta A109 light twin, in the late 1960s. It then merged with Britain’s Westland Helicopters in 2000 to form AgustaWestland, later rebranded Leonardo Helicopters in 2017, a nod to Italian inventor and artist Leonardo da Vinci.