Eurocopter and Pawan Hans Helicopter Ltd. (PHHL) have enjoyed close ties since 1983. Rotor takes a closer look at this exemplary partnership.

Eurocopter and PHHL, the world’s number one civil operator of the Dauphin helicopter, recently added a new chapter to their long history of cooperation when a major retrofit operation was begun on the company’s helicopters. The goal is to increase safety levels and meet new objectives for competitiveness in the oil & gas sector. 12 of the 27 Dauphins (18 AS365 Ns and nine AS365 N3s) in the Indian operator’s fleet were retrofitted between late 2006 to the end of 2007.
The project’s ambitious goals could only be met by transferring knowledge between the Eurocopter and PHHL teams; therefore, a group of Eurocopter engineers was sent on a temporary assignment to India to train a team of PHHL specialists. In late 2007, R.K. Tyagi, who has been PHHL’s chairman for the past year, took the process one step further: A common improvement plan was established to improve the availability of the aircraft. The plan contains a detailed analysis of the helicopters’ logistics and maintenance processes, and the objective is to reach the highest international standards of operational availability for the entire fleet.
PHHL has also been a certified Eurocopter maintenance center since 2002, and is constantly increasing its maintenance and repair capacities for the aircraft of the Dauphin family. Eurocopter has also provided the highest levels of support in this area by assigning tech reps to India, providing training for Indian engineers, and conducting workshops to improve processes. PHHL is specialized in the oil & gas sector and currently holds approximately 40% of the market share in India. However, the company also performs a wide range of missions in other high-growth sectors such as emergency medical services (EMS), search and rescue (SAR) and passenger transportation. To increase its market share and to respond to higher demand, PHHL is considering the possibility of increasing its range of helicopters over the next few years.
The company is being called on to transport passengers to oil platforms further and further offshore, and these longer hauls require helicopters such as the EC225 to reach rigs more than 200 nautical miles from the coast. The EC225 can also be quickly converted to perform SAR missions.