Rotorhub
AgustaWestland reveals 2009 results
AgustaWestland saw new orders for helicopters fall by nearly 40 % in 2009, the company's results have revealed.
The company, part of the larger Finmeccanica group, reported €3.2 billion worth of orders in 2009, a decrease of €1.87 billion on the €5.07 billion total in 2008. Overall revenue was up, however, by €445 million to €3.48 billion as a result of greater production volumes in the civil/government helicopters business, and in particular orders for the AW139 and the AW101.
Helicopters (new aircraft and upgrades) accounted for 50 % of new orders, product support (spare parts and services) for 42 %, and engineering for the remaining 8 %. The main contracts were 12 Lynx Mk 9 helicopters for the British Ministry of Defence; integrated operational support for the British Army’s 67 Apache AH-MK1 helicopters; the order from the General Directorate of Air Armaments (ARMAEREO) to provide the Italian Army with 16 ICH-47F Chinook helicopters and the related logistics support, with an option for a further four units; orders for a total of 97 helicopters in the civil government segment for various countries including Cyprus, Malaysia, the US, Oman, Brazil and Italy.
The order backlog was €9,786 million, sufficient to guarantee around two and a half years of production. The order backlog comprises helicopters (73 %), product support (23 %) - half of which is accounted for by the IOS contracts with the UK Ministry of Defence - and 4 % of which relates to engineering.
By Tony Osborne, Rotorhub.com editorial team
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