Eurocopter delivers the first of six EC145s ordered by the Republic of Kazakhstan

Euro­copter deliv­ered the first of six EC145s ordered to date by the Kaza­kh Min­istries of Defense and Emer­gen­cies. A total of 45 of the heli­copters are to be pur­chased, and will be assem­bled by the new joint ven­ture Euro­copter Kaza­khstan Engi­neer­ing, in which Euro­copter and Kaza­khstan Engi­neer­ing have a 50/50 share. 

EC145 (Ref. DIGIT-03482_EC145, © Copy­right Euro­copter). Source: EADS — Euro­copter Click to enlarge

This ini­tial deliv­ery comes on the heels of the indus­tri­al coop­er­a­tion and dis­tri­b­u­tion con­tract signed last June by Euro­copter CEO Lutz Bertling and Pres­i­dent of Kaza­khstan Engi­neer­ing Bolat Smag­ulov, in the pres­ence of the French and Kaza­kh prime min­is­ters François Fil­lon and Karim Mas­si­mov, respectively.

The new joint ven­ture, Euro­copter Kaza­khstan Engi­neer­ing, will be assem­bling and cus­tomiz­ing EC145s at its facil­i­ties near the Astana Inter­na­tion­al Air­port in Kaza­khstan. The com­pa­ny will also enable Euro­copter to pro­vide its cus­tomers in Kaza­khstan and Cen­tral Asia with bet­ter local ser­vices for heli­copter main­te­nance as well as train­ing for pilots and tech­ni­cians. In addi­tion, Euro­copter Kaza­khstan Engi­neer­ing will be pur­su­ing sales activ­i­ties through­out the region. Euro­copter Kaza­khstan Engi­neer­ing is sched­uled to deliv­er the ini­tial six EC145s to the Kaza­kh Min­istry of Defense and the Min­istry of Emer­gen­cies before the end of the year for search and res­cue and med­ical evac­u­a­tion mis­sions. The remain­ing heli­copters are to be deliv­ered by the end of 2016.

“The deliv­ery of this first EC145 is very sym­bol­ic, as it marks the begin­ning of oper­a­tions as part of our coop­er­a­tion with Kaza­khstan Engi­neer­ing,” said Olivi­er Michalon, Glob­al Busi­ness & Ser­vices Vice Pres­i­dent for Europe and Cen­tral Asia. “We are very proud to be part of the Euro­copter Kaza­khstan Engi­neer­ing joint ven­ture, as it will enable us to deploy major indus­tri­al capac­i­ties in the Kaza­kh avi­a­tion indus­try and lay the ground­work for the devel­op­ment of a new, high­ly spe­cial­ized sec­tor in the coun­try. We are also con­vinced that the new joint ven­ture will place Euro­copter in an excel­lent posi­tion for future devel­op­ment local­ly, as we are poised to pro­vide oper­a­tors with heli­copters that are par­tic­u­lar­ly well suit­ed for the oil & gas indus­try and para­pub­lic mis­sions, includ­ing emer­gency med­ical ser­vices, home­land secu­ri­ty and patrol, mil­i­tary, cor­po­rate and VIP.”

The EC145 is a true stand­out in the twin-engine, medi­um-lift class. It offers mul­ti-mis­sion capa­bil­i­ties and is equipped with the lat­est inno­va­tions devel­oped by Euro­copter in cock­pit design, avion­ics and rotor sys­tems. It is cer­ti­fied for flight at tem­per­a­tures as low as ‑45°C, mak­ing it par­tic­u­lar­ly well suit­ed for the harsh weath­er con­di­tions and frigid tem­per­a­tures often encoun­tered in Kazakhstan.

About Euro­copter

Estab­lished in 1992, the Fran­co-Ger­man-Span­ish Euro­copter Group is a divi­sion of EADS, a world leader in aero­space, defense and relat­ed ser­vices. The Euro­copter Group employs approx­i­mate­ly 17,500 peo­ple. In 2010, Euro­copter con­firmed its posi­tion as the world’s num­ber one heli­copter man­u­fac­tur­er in the civ­il and para­pub­lic mar­ket with a turnover of 4.8 bil­lion Euros, orders for 346 new heli­copters and a 49 per­cent mar­ket share in the civ­il and para­pub­lic sec­tors. Over­all, the Group’s heli­copters account for 33 per­cent of the total world­wide civ­il and para­pub­lic fleet. Eurocopter’s strong world­wide pres­ence is ensured by its 30 sub­sidiaries and par­tic­i­pa­tions on five con­ti­nents, along with a dense net­work of dis­trib­u­tors, cer­ti­fied agents and main­te­nance cen­ters. There are cur­rent­ly 11,200 Euro­copter heli­copters in ser­vice and some 2,900 cus­tomers in 147 coun­tries. Euro­copter offers the largest civ­il and mil­i­tary heli­copter range in the world.

For more infor­ma­tion, please con­tact:
Stéphane CHERY
Head of Inter­na­tion­al Media Rela­tions
Eurocopter

Tel.:+33 4 42 85 60 51
Fax:+33 4 42 85 89 70