AgustaWestland, a Finmeccanica company, announced that Weststar Aviation Services of Malaysia has taken delivery of an additional AW139, bringing the total delivered of the typeto 18in support of Weststar’s offshore oil & gas transportation and VIP transportservices. The aircraft, which was built at AgustaWestland’s Philadelphia facility in the United States, was accepted by Tan Sri Syed Azman Syed Ibrahim, Weststar Group Managing Director from William Hunt, CEO, AgustaWestland Philadelphia, during a ceremony .
In total, WeststarAviation Services has ordered 30helicopters from AgustaWestland since 2010, comprising 24 AW139s, four AW189s and two AW169s.
“The acceptance of our 18th AW139 further strengthens our partnership with AgustaWestland and allows us to be the leading provider of offshore aviation services in the region,” said Tan Sri Syed Azman Syed Ibrahim, Weststar Group Managing Director. “We are proud to fly the AW139 and look forward to our future expansion plans globally that include introduction of the AW169 and the AW189 into our fleet.”
“We are pleased to deliver yet another AW139 to Weststar as they continue to expand their fleet to serve their growing list of clients in the offshore oil and gas market,” said Vincenzo Alaimo, Managing Director of AgustaWestland Malaysia Sdn Bhd. “AgustaWestland Malaysia is committed to support Weststar’s fleet of aircraft from our regional hub in Kuala Lumpur, ensuring excellent reliability, safety and performance.”
Weststar will be the one of the first operators worldwide to benefit from the commonality in design across the AW139, AW169 and AW189 Family of new generation helicopters. As well as possessing the same high performance flight characteristics and safety features, the helicopters share a common cockpit layout, design philosophy, and maintenance concepts that will allow more effective operations for customers operating helicopter fleets from 4 to 8.5 tonnes.