ANDREW DOYLE / SINGAPORE
Company in negotiations with US leasing company to set up European joint venture
Australia-based TransWorld Aviation Group is aggressively expanding its nascent European helicopter leasing business and aims to build up a portfolio of 30 medevac aircraft by the end of 2003.
Paris-headquartered TransWorld Helicopter Leasing, a unit of the company's European fixed-wing leasing business, has already placed two pre-owned Eurocopter AS355Ns with French operator Aerosystèmes Heliocéan Helicoptères for five years and an AS350 with Jet Systems for three years. The company is also finalising a deal to place four Agusta A109s in Italy.
Group managing director Tony Griffin says the company is moving into the European government-funded medevac helicopter leasing market because it offers "more secure income" and reduces the company's reliance on the more cyclical fixed-wing business.
The company specialises in taking over purchase contracts already negotiated by the operator.
"There appears to be a good gap in the market," says Griffin. "Helicopters also hold a high resale value relative to fixed-wing aircraft." He estimates the European market has the capacity to absorb up to 100 leased medevac helicopters a year, but only a handful of players are active in the market.
"We are negotiating with one of the major US leasing companies with a view to expanding through a joint venture," says Griffin, declining to name the company. General Electric Capital Aviation Services and GATX, however, are known to be plotting a major expansion of their rotary-wing leasing businesses in Europe.
Privately owned TransWorld Aviation Group has fixed-wing leasing units in Australia, Europe and Singapore, which offer aircraft on operating lease ranging from 40-seat turboprops to Airbus and Boeing narrowbodies. TransWorld subsidiary, Luxemburg-based Eurojet Aircraft Leasing, focuses on regional jets. Griffin says helicopters should account for 20% of the group's annual leasing revenue by the end of 2003.
The company has also set up TransAustralian Air Express, which operates a fleet of Boeing 727 freighters on scheduled and charter flights.
Source: Flight International
