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Eurocopter CEO’s Speech

Eurocopter CEO Lutz Bertling stated, “Our global industrial footprint and our comprehensive, innovative product and services portfolio have proven to be an asset in this difficult economic period. Not all geographic areas and market segments are equally affected by the crisis. The downturn in the corporate, tourism and EMS markets which typically acquire smaller helicopters has been countered by a stable oil and gas market due to new exploration activities, and by a strong military market. Our decision to focus, in 2009, on governmental and services orders has proven to be right and allowed us to increase our backlog by more than 1 billion Euros.
While the United States and Eastern Europe, for instance, have been heavily affected by the crisis, Latin America, Asia and Western Europe kept up relatively well. In 2009, we have continued to expand our industrial presence in the UK, Japan, the USA, Australia, Brazil, Singapore and Thailand, while at the same time investing more resources into Research & Development and new products. We will be ready for future market requirements when the economy recovers.”
Eurocopter’s key highlights in 2009 were the roll-out of the KUH (Korean Utility Helicopter), developed jointly with Korea Aerospace Industries, on July 31, and the maiden flight of the EC 175, a joint development with Avic of China, on December 4. Both programmes are precisely on schedule and show great market potential already at this early stage.
The Tiger has been deployed to Afghanistan by the French Armed Forces, proving unparalleled reliability and serviceability in the operational theatre. NH 90 deliveries have continued throughout 2009 with a fleet of 40 helicopters in the tactical transport version now in service in five countries. The first naval NH90 has been handed over to the Netherlands.
Deliveries of the UH-72A Lakota for the US Army and Navy are approaching 100, all of them on time or even ahead of schedule. An order for a further 51 Lakotas was placed in December. The deployed Lakota fleet has accumulated over 21,000 flight hours to date, Eurocopter’s Support and Services section booked three major orders, one for the retrofit of 26 German Army CH-53s for personnel recovery mission, one for the Life Extension of 28 Royal Air Force Pumas, and one for the retrofit of 34 Brazilian Army Panthers.
The range of Eurocopter’s services has also been expanded substantially in 2009, with the inauguration of new simulators at Helisim, HFTS, American Eurocopter and Eurocopter Deutschland, the installation of 24/7 customer service centres in Hong Kong and Dallas, a new logistics platform in France, and guaranteed ad hoc support to all customers.

Challenges for 2010

Facing an unpredictable market situation, Eurocopter has launched an internal programme designated SHAPE with the following aims:
  1. Save cash (short term), implement cost reductions to save €200 million per year, and reduce inventory, both to generate the cash for investing in the company’s future.
  2. Improve productivity and efficiency, implement faster, simplified processes.
  3. Invest into new projects such as the X4 (successor for the Dauphin), the Aerial Armed Scout proposed to the US Army together with Lockheed Martin, and the Future Transport Helicopter. In addition, Eurocopter will boost environmental, safety and performance/cost technologies for the benefit of its customers. With bluecopter by Eurocopter, environmental friendliness has become a focus for Eurocopter’s innovation works.
The company’s SHAPE programme is the right step towards implementing the Eurocopter Vision 2020. With these targets, combined with its strong order backlog, Eurocoper is well-placed to weather the challenges of the years to come.

In the picture: The Eurocopter-AVIC EC 175 mock-up was exhibited at 2009 Paris Air Show. (Aeromedia)