Overall, there were 393 changes to Asia-Pacific’s helicopter fleet in 2021, an increase from the 308 in 2020. This was composed of 91 new deliveries, 137 pre-owned additions, and 165 deductions.

The configuration of more than half (57%) of Asia-Pacific’s turbine helicopter fleet was utility, which were used for multi-mission operations in 2021 - a rise of about 2.5% since 2020. The remaining fleet was configured as VIP (16%), Law Enforcement (7%), Offshore (7%), SAR (6%), EMS (6%), and Training (2%). Utility, VIP and Training configured helicopters saw net additions, while Law Enforcement stayed the same as in 2020. With the exception of the above, every other category saw a net deduction in 2021. The EMS configured fleet experienced the largest reduction, by 29 units. This was followed by helicopters with SAR and Offshore configurations – by four and two units, respectively.

In terms of fleet value1 , utility configured helicopters accounted for nearly 45% of the total value of US$32.2 billion. Notably, although offshore and SAR configured helicopters accounted for less than 10% of the total fleet, they were 16% and 10% of the total fleet value, respectively.

Airbus Helicopters (1,860 units), Bell (1,233 units), and Leonardo (468 units) remained the top three OEMs in the Asia-Pacific region with 42%, 28%, and 10% market share, respectively. Bell and Airbus were the best performers in terms of net additions, by adding 39 units and 21 units since 2020, while Leonardo and Sikorsky Helicopters saw net deductions of 15 units and four units over the same period.

As was the case in 2020, single-engine helicopters were the most popular size category in 2021, with more than half of the fleet (53%) belonging to this category. Medium size helicopters came second, but only had a market share of 23%, followed by light twin helicopters with 18% market share.