AgustaWestland, a Finmeccanica company, announced FAS (Falcon Aviation Services) of Abu Dhabi have signed firm orders for two AW169 light intermediate helicopters.

The announcement was made on November 18th in presence of Sheik Zayed bin Sultan bin Khalifa bin Zayed al Nahyan, chief and executive officer and vice chairman of Falcon Aviation Services and Mahmood Ismael, chief operating officer of Falcon Aviation Services. 

The orders follow the preliminary sales contract signed in September 2011. The current FAS’ fleet of AgustaWestland helicopters includes a mix of four light twin helicopters including the Grand and GrandNew models.  

FAS main operating base is Al Bateen Executive Airport in Abu Dhabi,  its provides corporate jet charter, helicopter tourism, aerial photography & filming, aerial banner advertising, offshore / on-shore oil & gas support, aircraft maintenance (helicopters & executive jets) and aircraft management.

The AW169 is a  4.5 tonne, twin engine light intermediate category helicopter, the AW169,The AW169 i its roles covers passenger and offshore transport, EMS, SAR, law enforcement, and utility.

With all four prototypes having logged more than 470 flight hours so far, the AW169 is on schedule to obtain certification in 2014 together with a set of mission kits, dedicated support services and training tools on offer. 

More than 100 AW169s have already been ordered by more than 30 customers in over 10 countries worldwide to perform a range of roles. The AW169 is part of the AgustaWestland Family of new generation helicopters that includes the AW139 and AW189 models, which posses the same high performance flight characteristics and safety features as well as sharing a common cockpit layout, design philosophy and maintenance concept. This commonality will allow more effective operations for customers operating helicopter fleets across the 4 to 8.5 tonne categories.