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Before cancellations, the Airbus subsidiary won 374 gross orders
last year, it said in a statement.
Airbus Helicopters, whose competitors include Textron subsidiary
Bell and AgustaWestland, part of Italy's Leonardo, said that it
had secured 52% of the global civil and parapublic -
government-owned or operated services like police and air
ambulances - market in 2022.
Airbus Helicopters also confirmed that its helicopter fleet
flight hours had returned to pre-COVID 2019 levels.
Flight hours drive service revenues that make up almost half of
Airbus Helicopters sales.
Cushioned by public services, helicopter demand suffered less
from COVID-19 than the grounded airline industry.
Airbus Helicopters Chief Executive Bruno Even told Reuters in
September that flight hours had reached pre-COVID levels and the
number of available second-hand helicopters - a brake on new
sales - had fallen.
In Wednesday's statement, Even warned of a "fragile supply
chain," however.
On the military side, Airbus Helicopters said it was pushing
ahead with the design of an assembly line in Broughton, Wales,
for the military version of its H175 helicopter in the event it
wins a competition to supply the British military.
Britain plans to buy up to 44 medium helicopters to replace its
fleet of Pumas and other military models, with Airbus' European
rival Leonardo seen as front-runner.
Leonardo dominates the UK military market, while Airbus has the
greatest number of commercial and emergency helicopters.
On Tuesday, Airbus Chief Executive Guillaume Faury set out the
company's pitch in London, where he said the Broughton facility
- a World War II bomber factory where Airbus has for decades
made wings for jets - would become the sole assembly site for
the H175M for the world market if Airbus won the bid.
(Reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)
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