The upsides of upsizing: a new UK HQ for Airbus Helicopters

With an ever-increasing presence in the country’s helicopter market, Airbus Helicopters in the UK recently moved to a new purpose-built headquarters. Lenny Brown, Managing Director, explains what they are going to do with all that new space. 

Beyond simply being one of the leaders in the UK helicopter market, Airbus has a sizable stake in the vertical lift infrastructure in one of the Company’s ‘home countries’. At face value, the Oxford site and its staff of nearly 300 employees have two crucial activities. The first is the completions and retrofits of the helicopters for Airbus Helicopters’ customers. The second aspect is the maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) for the helicopters used by organisations such as the police and armed forces. On closer inspection though, the range of activities goes deeper, with a design office that has the responsibility of developing customisation solutions for customers with highly technical equipment requirements on their aircraft. The site also provides training to pilots and engineers, for both UK and international customers, as well as housing the team selling helicopters into the UK market.

Airbus’s helicopters are an important part of the nation’s civil and defence fabric. In terms of parapublic missions, the National Police Air Service is flying 20 H135 and H145 helicopters, while two thirds of Great Britain and Northern Ireland’s air ambulances are Airbus Helicopters. Today, all UK military pilots and rear crew do their mission-specific training on H135 and H145 helicopters. “We have 150 employees at RAF Shawbury totally dedicated to supporting the entire fleet of 36 Junos and Jupiters used for the UK’s Military Flight Training System,” emphasises Lenny Brown, Managing Director at Airbus Helicopters in the UK.

Double celebration

Ensuring that customers can fulfil their missions is a critical part of Airbus Helicopters’ activities and the company’s new UK headquarters shows its commitment to its operators, with the 11,700m2 site significantly increasing the amount of MRO activity that can be undertaken. The modern facilities also provide all colleagues with more comfortable working conditions, whether they are customising and supporting helicopters, or working inside the offices. The relocation might only be a short hop from one side of Oxford Airport to the other, but in terms of opening up new possibilities – a little goes a long way.

“The new building is much bigger than where we previously occupied on the other side of the airfield. It is a vastly improved working environment, both inside for our technical workforce and on the operations apron outside,” notes Brown. Offering more space with better equipment, the expectation is that productivity will consequently increase to match the market demand.  Outside, the site boasts eight landing pads able to accept all models of Airbus helicopters right up to the largest.

It really is a case of ‘newer means better’. “The new premises are going to be absolutely transformative and will give us a vastly improved working environment. There is much more space, it’s more comfortable, and there’s the potential to develop the kinds of leading edge systems that will underpin our growth,” explains Brown. 

The building move also comes in the same year as Airbus Helicopters in the UK celebrates its 50th anniversary. The Oxford site will directly maintain around 100 helicopters, supporting 50,000 flight hours per year and Brown believes there are opportunities for more growth in the UK helicopter market. “Fleet replacement will be important in the military and parapublic markets. The five-blade rotor H145 is proving hugely popular in the HEMS segment - so we expect continued success.”

Learn more about Airbus Helicopters in the United Kingdom.