Erickson Air-Crane announced it has executed a binding term sheet for its acquisition of Brazilian company Air Amazonia at Heli-Expo 2013 in Las Vegas, Nev., marking the company’s first steps into the medium lift market as well as establishing a foothold in the flourishing oil-and-gas sector in the country.
The acquisition of Air Amazonia, which previously existed as the operating division of oil-and-gas company HRT, includes seven Sikorsky S-61s, five Bell 212s, and two Eurocopter AS350s, as well the roughly 100 employees at Air Amazonia.
“It’s a platform for us to then expand in South America . . . into other countries like Peru,” said Udo Rieder, president and CEO of Erickson Air-Crane. “It’s also exciting for Erickson because . . . today marks this first change for us, where we’re not only focused on heavy lift, but now medium lift with these helicopters, and also passenger carrying capability.”
Rieder said HRT, based deep in the Amazon jungle, was running a “very exciting operation.” In just over 18 months, HRT has drilled 10 oil wells. “That’s the kind of operation you just can’t build overnight,” said Rieder. “It’s an operation that runs very well and is efficient, and we converged on it because we could get there very quickly and have something very exciting that we could then expand on.”
For Air Amazonia, this expansion will include working with other oil-and-gas operators in the region, whereas previously it had been tied to HRT only. “It allows us to use some of the helicopters that are currently not being utilized for HRT, for these other customers, [which is] up to half [of the fleet] at this point,” said Rieder.
He added that the move into the medium-lift sector will allow Erickson Air-Crane to compete more effectively with its competition.
“It opens up new markets for us,” said Rieder. “If you look at our competitors, one difference that comes up over and over again is they almost all fly medium lift helicopters, so what became very apparent is that we were leaving some of the market behind. . . . And the other thing is, most of these companies, once they find a reliable safe supplier, they prefer to do business with that one supplier, not three or four different suppliers.”
HRT CEO Marcio Mello said Erickson Air-Crane was receiving a well-established operation. “HRT has put half a billion dollars infrastructure in the middle of the Amazon jungle,” he said. “We have a base, we have our hangar, we [have] even refurbished a complete airport there. Nobody has the network of fuel supplies that we have in the middle of the jungle.”
For HRT, Mello said the acquisition would mark the beginning of a new team rather than simply an exchange of ownership. “This is not a sale. I am not selling this, I am making a partnership, because this is critical for us and we hope [Erickson Air-Crane], with all the responsibilities that they have, will increase efficiencies and help us do our job. . . . We hope that this partnership will be fantastic one and we will be together for several years.”
Following the announcement of the acquisition, Rieder also revealed that Erickson Air-Crane was working on composite main rotor blades for the S-64, with flight tests expected to start shortly. He said the new blades would reduce production costs and maintenance, and increase the aircraft’s efficiency and lift capacity at altitude – the latter by an estimated 15 percent.
