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

Rising Market Share Reflects Broad Line

"There were 21 delivered, and we had 10 of those." That stat on the U.S. market for corporate helicopters for the first half of 2002 illustrates the recent and ongoing success of American Eurocopter, a Texas-based, wholly owned subsidiary of the giant European aerospace conglomerate EADS.

"We're still doing quite well," says American Eurocopter president and CEO Rudy Palladina.

"We have the most comprehensive menu of aircraft to select from," he told Show News on the eve of NBAA. "This year we should be very close to a 50% market share," Palladina said, of the U.S. turbine helicopter market, by unit. That's up from about 41% percent last year.

"We're outselling all our competitors," he states flatly. Counting all markets, American Eurocopter has delivered some three dozen aircraft this year going to Orlando.

Eurocopter saw a drop-off in corporate sales following 9/11, but Palladina says his company has been fortunate enough to make up for it in law enforcement and EMS. Still, be sees the corporate sphere as one in which Eurocopter, with more than half a dozen models to choose from, can do better.

Those models are the EC120B Colibri, AS350 B2, AS350 B3, and EC130 B4 singles, and the EC135 and EC155 twins. Also with corporate market potential are the new EC145 twin developed with Kawasaki Heavy Industries and certified earlier this year (the 145 is being promoted primarily for EMS and offshore roles), and the Super Puma, a heavy twin.

The EC155 is now designated the EC155 B1, and as such boasts 10% more power with new Turbomeca Arriel 2C2 engines. It's the corporate flagship of American Eurocopter, and is the aircraft on display here.

Advances include noise and vibration attenuation, "improved piloting comfort," better air conditioning and ventilation, Eurocopter's five-blade Spheriflex main rotor for low vibration, and a super-quiet Fenestron tail rotor with 10 blades spaced irregularly around the hub. The EC155 B1 is rated for single-pilot IFR.

Eurocopter has 60 orders to date for the 155, and 40 have been delivered. The aircraft is priced at $7.5 million; in the works now is a de-icing option expected to add about $1 million to the cost.

NBAA is an ideal show, of course, for the corporate market, a market where Palladina sees a traditionally long "gestation period" during which a prospect is converted to a sale. Customers for smaller machines who have been whacked by higher post-9/11 insurance rates are among those most needing to be nurtured, he says.

They'll do that nurturing here this week. "NBAA has always been a strategically important show," Palladina says. "It's a critically important show for us."

Still Stressing Service
The bad old days of scarce support for a European helicopter in the United States are behind it now, but American Eurocopter is still making a concerted effort to improve its after-sales service, says president and CEO Rudy Palladina.

"We are absolutely focused on continuing to improve our support," he told Show News. More field technicians have been assigned, he says, and they've all been told to step up their customer calls.

"It's a challenge," Palladina says, "particularly when you consider we've been introducing a lot of new models." Eurocopter boasts 14 different helicopter models, among which there are two dozen different versions. One measure of success? Spare part fill ratios have been "consistently" better than 95%.

The company has increased the value of its parts inventories by more than $10 million over the past 18 months, bringing the total inventory value to more than $60 million.