Calling the market the best he has seen in a decade, Safran Helicopter Engines CEO Franck Saudo said Tuesday during Heli-Expo that the phenomenon is unusual in that all segments are gaining momentum. “That’s peculiar because when you look at the history of the helicopter market, it’s rare to have green lights on many market segments at the same time simply because the cycles of the different market segments…are not necessarily synchronized. And what we see at the moment clearly is synchronized,” he explained.
Saudo reiterated his company’s supply chain “remains very much constrained...mainly due to labor shortages” and constitutes “the number one challenge of our company in 2023.” He said that Safran has battled the problem by becoming increasingly vertically integrated and adding employees—400 last year and an estimated 200 in 2023. Material shortages are acute in steel, particularly superalloys, he added. “In the foreseeable future, I do not see an improvement,” Saudo said. “We keep assessing the situation.”
Citing a number of company milestones and accomplishments, Saudo noted Safran's fleet of 15,000 Arriel series engines achieving 60 million flight hours, significant OEM orders for Bell 505s and Airbus H125s and H160s, and the signing of large service contracts with the French government and the U.S. Army—the latter in support of the branch’s fleet of more than 400 Airbus Helicopters UH-72A/B Lakota models. He said the company continues its sustainability commitment, working to make its engines up to 20 percent more fuel efficient and moving toward certifying its engines to operate on 100 percent sustainable aviation fuel. It also continues work on its “eco mode” feature, which rolls back one engine to flight idle while a twin-engine helicopter is in cruise flight, and advancing its long-term commitment to hybridization research.
