European manufacturer Airbus Helicopters has recorded a growth in demand of 10% for the second year in a row, the company announced earlier this month.
The announcement came of the back of a good year for orders and deliveries, during which Airbus dispatched 361 new helicopters to customers and booked 455 orders.
The company believes it now has a market share of 57%.
According to CEO Bruno Even, the civil parapublic and military/security markets contributed to the strong growth, with the H225M Super Puma singled out for the 58 orders the company received for the model during the 2024 calendar year.
"Defence and security is a strategic priority at Airbus Helicopters," Even said. "We are proud to support our customers with helicopters that enable them to protect and serve their nations as we saw in 2024 with the US National Guard’s Lakota supporting disaster relief efforts after Hurricane Helene and the H135 and NH90 in the flooding in Valencia, Spain.
"We continue to innovate and expand the mission capabilities that we offer – we integrated Flexrotor into our UAS portfolio, we demonstrated crewed-uncrewed teaming capabilities with the VSR700 and an H130, and we are laying the groundwork for the European Next Generation Rotorcraft through dedicated concept studies."
Of the civil models, the entry-level H125 performed the best, with Airbus taking orders for 155 helicopters, followed by the H145, of which 114 were ordered.
During the year, Airbus also flew the prototype of its Rapid and Cost-effective Rotorcraft (RACER) experimental airframe, which is a hybrid rotorcraft that uses a rotor for vertical flight and sustained horizontal flight, but is also driven by two propellers in pusher configuration.
After just seven flights, the RACER passed its objective of 220 KTAS.
Airbus also continued to roll out the H160 and progressed the H175 certification with de-icing tests during the year.