During the Jet Expo 2009 exhibition Jets.ru reporter had talked with Angelo Raimondi - Vice President Sales for Europe and Caspian Area of Commercial Business Unit - AgustaWestland.

Should we start talking about the current economic conditions and their influence to the aviation and AgustaWestland as well?

Since September last year the situation has dramatically changed all over the planet. We are living in a global world and there is no country that doesn’t feel the evolution of the market. Now the world has been affected by the financial economical crisis and aviation is also suffering. As a helicopter manufacturer we are also touched. But for sure the financial crisis hit much stronger the private investors, the banking and the credit systems. Our company has a large variety of products and solutions used and offered on the world market, not only for the corporate segment but also for law enforcement, military, search and rescue, EMS and others. They’re suffering but not to the degree of the private segment.

And what are the actual changes on the market?

You can see that the aircraft producers are facing the recession. The market is overloaded by used aircraft. But this is a temporary situation.

You can not drive at two hundred kilometers per hour in a dirty road. It’s better to slow down and be prepared to get back to the motorway. So we are driving carefully and at the end of the tunnel when the external conditions are better, we will be ready to force at the full speed.

What are the current results of your presence on the Russian market?

We already have the AW119 Ke, the AW109 Power and the Grand on operation in Russia. We are building service stations to help Russians operate and maintain their helicopters.
Now it is the temporary slowdown (not a stop, just a slowdown) which is affecting everybody including the helicopter operators. We are looking forward to the end of this situation and to returning back at the same speed we had before.

Has AgustaWestland changed the strategy for working in the Russian market then?

AgustaWestland is approaching Russia with the same spirit and the same objectives like a year ago. Our company is moving on by a long term interest and long term objectives in this country. We are continuing discussions with our Russian partner and we will go on being present on the market.

Has AgustaWestland finalized the agreement with Oboronprom for the set up of the joint venture?

We have finished the preparation and now waiting for the formal approval of the governments.

I guess that is a very complicated issue, which certainly requires the governmental support.

We already have done the same for the fixed wing with Sukhoi to market the Superjet.

Excuse me, will Finmeccanica market the Sukhoi Superjet?

Finmeccanica, as you know, has partnered with Sukhoi for the marketing of the Superjet. We’re progressing in helicopters on the same way we did with the fixed wings. So it’s not an isolated case. I refer to the aviation because jets and helicopters have the same approach, but Finmeccanica has also a very good cooperation on the energy, gas and electricity fields and so on.

I think we can have a very good and profitable partnership. Russian aircraft industry is very big, strong and knowledgeable and it has built helicopters which are unique in the world. Once I’ve seen a Mi-26 flying and that was very impressive. In my opinion cooperating with such a partner is of great interest to us. Furthermore, AgustaWestland helicopters are working everywhere in the world. We have helicopters which are tested and matured for a very hostile environment as Siberia or Arctic. And we are here to work for years, not to come and sell few helicopters and go.

So let us talk about your personal duties. Could you tell me what is the current share of AgustaWestland on the Russian market?

I think that the portion of AgustaWestland is very high in the segment of light twins IFR in the weight class of 3 tonnes, thanks to the AW109 Power and the Grand models. We have the largest portion.

Can you describe your VIP customers?

If you noticed I have tried not to use the word VIP in the common language because we don’t like to define this market as a VIP market. It is a corporate and private helicopter market. Helicopters of our customers are in the majority (of course there are some exceptions) and are used for business. And only rarely working for tourism or personal hobbies. We also have some clients that simply like to fly but they aren’t so numerous.

Most of our customers are people who need to move rapidly from one place to another without loosing hours, who are horrified by waiting in the lounges, who hate the traffic jams in the streets. By using a helicopter they can travel rapidly and safely, simultaneously working or talking with their partners.

Just to give you an example: you can move from outside of Moscow to St. Petersburg in less than 2 hours. You can not do that from door to door because the flights inside the cities are not allowed. But there’s no other way you can do that better in a more comfortable and relaxed way. This is the right solution for the entrepreneurs that need to concentrate on their work and be effective. So inside the helicopter they are able to feel themselves similar to sitting in a business jet, limousine or in the office.

But I can assume that due to the crisis the actual orders for the corporate helicopters will decrease dramatically, but you may get more customers for the EMS and search and rescue units.

You‘re right. The visibility of AgustaWestland in Russia at the moment is the corporate helicopter, but we also have a very strong complete range for EMS, search and rescue, civil protection, offshore and other segments.

In that case I think that some helicopters for the support of the Olympic Games in Sochi will be required.

We were doing the winter Olympic Games in Turin. And we provided our helicopters for the games in Vancouver. And we had our helicopters working in Beijing. So I think history is an important source – we were able to succeed three times already.
For sure the date is fixed and we have to be ready.