There were 4,131 civil turbine helicopters operating in the Asia-Pacific region at the end of 2024, which was an increase of 64 over the previous year. While this 1.6% year-on-year fleet growth in the region seemed modest and was similar to the annual percentage growth during the period 2019 – 2022, the Asia-Pacific based fleet has in fact grown by 850 units during the past 10 years, with a year-on-year compound growth of 2.3% since 2014.
Despite continued operational challenges in some of the largest markets in the region, and the introduction of advanced air mobility options, demand for helicopter use remained strong during 2024. There were 113 new deliveries to the region during 2024, as well as 84 pre-owned additions, which were fairly well spread across the different size categories. For the most popular helicopter types, 2024 new delivery numbers were all above those of 2023, which demonstrated the overall demand for new helicopters in the region.
Airbus remained the largest OEM in the region with a fleet of 1,717 helicopters, delivering 51 new helicopters during 2024 – the highest number among all OEMs. These included 13 H145s and 13 H125s, both highly popular models in Asia-Pacific. Airbus also delivered six new H175 Super Medium helicopters to the region, which included the first Search & Rescue equipped H175s to mainland China. Two more H160s were also handed over to operators in the region. In addition, 46 pre-owned Airbus helicopters joined the Asia-Pacific-based fleet during 2024.
Leading the number of new deliveries into Asia-Pacific during 2024 was the Leonardo AW139, of which 17 were handed over, mainly comprising EMS and SAR equipped examples for mainland China, Australia and Japan. Leonardo also delivered six new AW189s during the year, including SAR examples for mainland China’s Ministry of Transport. Leonardo’s active Asia-Pacific based fleet stood at 489 helicopters at the end of 2024, a year-on-year net increase of 27 units.
The most popular types among the pre-owned additions were the Airbus AS350/H125 (16 added) and EC145/H145 (12 added), with both types exceeding their 2023 number of pre-owned additions.
Some 133 helicopters were removed from the Asia-Pacific based fleet during 2024 through retirements and exports out of the region. There were 35 permanent retirements, which comprised mainly of older helicopters such as the Bell 206, Bell 412 and AS350.
There were no significant changes to the overall mission profiles of the Asia-Pacific-based fleet, with fleet sizes of the most popular missions remaining fairly consistent year-on-year. The EMS and SAR fleet increased by 10.1% and 15.6% respectively, accounted for by both new deliveries and re-configurations of existing helicopters. On the other hand, there was a minor decrease in the number of multimission helicopters in the region.
The fleet share by size category at the end of 2024 was also consistent with recent trends, with small increases across the Single, Light Twin, Medium Twin and Heavy categories. The addition of 11 H175s and AW189s during the year represented a one-third increase in fleet size for the Super Medium category.
Australia had the largest based fleet of helicopters at the end of 2024 with 1,016 units, a 5.6% increase over the previous year. Some 54 net additions were made to the Australian fleet, more than any other Asia-Pacific base location. The fleet sizes of other large markets including mainland China, Japan, New Zealand and India also saw little change in 2024.
This article is extracted from the most recent edition of The Civil Helicopter Fleet Report. To read or download the full report, please click here.