On the Record with
RUDY PALLADINA, PRESIDENT & CEO, AMERICAN EUROCOPTER

Eurocopter Targets Better Business Sales

"Business is definitely up this year," says American Eurocopter president and CEO Rudy Palladina. The company anticipates making about 80 deliveries in 2001, up from 61 in 2000, which will raise its North American civil market share to about 50%.

But most of the gains thus far in 2001 have been in the law enforcement segment. What American Eurocopter really wants is to do better by the business buyer. Thus the helicopter unit of Europe's giant EADS conglomerate weighs into the market with a chip on its shoulder. Plain and simple, Eurocopter wants to win over the corporate flyer.

The company had intended to show a pair of single-engine aircraft at NBAA, an EC 120 and an AS 350B3. But it's offering far more, with better than a dozen models to choose from (counting engine variants), ranging from the four-passenger EC 120 to the 12- to 20-place AS 332L Super Puma twin.

"We're going to make a real concerted effort to improve our business in the corporate sector," Palladina says.

Palladina appointed a corporate market specialist last year in the person of Jeff Warner, to help boost business sector sales, and is investing now in demonstrator time, in some cases leasing aircraft back from customers, to better show its wares. That's the case with the new EC 155, the first two of which from American Eurocopter (out of 19 worldwide) are now in service. Palladina's got enough faith in the strategy to project deliveries of four EC 155s in 2002.

"You've got to have these aircraft flying," he says.

You also have to help keep them flying, which is why American Eurocopter is still investing heavily in service and support (Palladina's predecessor, Christian Gras, now heads up Eurocopter's worldwide support efforts from the company's European headquarters in Marignane, in southern France.) Palladina says he's spent "millions" to beef up American Eurocopter's spares inventory, and the result is a fill rate lately averaging better than 95%.

"That's a very good number," he says, noting that "spares is where you score points." But, good as it is, "We still clearly understand that we've got a long way to go." Ongoing improvements include increased reliance on the Internet for fast customer support (with more customers taking advantage of online service), as well as enhanced forecasting technology to make spares availability even better.

"That job is never completed," Palladina says of service. "You never can rest. We will not stop until we're number one by any measure."

One critical measure? "They're continuing to buy our aircraft," Palladina told Show News, indicating that confidence in Eurocopter service is on the upswing. "The best measure of how we're doing is the order book," he insists.

Besides the corporate world, offshore oil is a major target market for American Eurocopter, especially now, as heightened energy concerns are fostering more production activity. The company has just placed an EC 135 light twin with Era Aviation in Lake Charles, LA, marking the type's Gulf of Mexico debut. "We expect that to generate a lot of interest," Palladina says, while deep-water operators are candidates for his company's heavier aircraft.

As for business conditions as a whole, Palladina is optimistic, in large part because helicopters can play an important role in the corporation when times are tough "and you need more from your executives."

"Properly utilized, the corporate helicopter is not a frivolous acquisition," he says. "These aircraft are business tools."

"It's a tough market out there," Palladina says. "We believe we have the best range of aircraft to select from."

-Rich Piellisch