LONDON – LCI, a private aircraft lessor, and Sumitomo Mitsui Finance and Leasing Company, also known as SMFL, have delivered 2 new Leonardo (previously known as AgustaWestland) AW169 helicopters to an Italian Emergency Medical Services helicopter operator, Alidaunia.
The jointly owned helicopter
Both helicopters will be stationed at Naples and Salerno, respectively, on long-term operating leases, from where Alidaunia will use them to deliver mission-critical and socially responsible Emergency Medical Services (EMS) operations for the Campania region of Italy.
Crispin Maunder, Executive Chairman of LCI, says, “Alidaunia is a highly experienced provider of helicopter services, and LCI is proud to be supporting their growing emergency medical services operation.”
“With over half of our fleet deployed on mission-critical operations, we have the technical and operational experience to help them deliver this vital service for the people of Campania.”
Roberto Pucillo, CEO of Alidaunia, says: “LCI’s experience in providing aircraft and support for emergency medical services operations makes them a natural partner for Alidaunia. We look forward to a long and productive partnership between our two companies.”
About the owners
LCI is a privately owned aircraft lessor founded in 2004, with its headquarters in Dublin, Ireland. LCI has offices around the world, including London and Singapore. Since its starting days, LCI has invested about an insane amount of $8 billion of transactions in the fixed-wing, helicopter, and advanced air mobility markets.
LCI has partnered up with SMFL, a Japanese leasing company, to exploit the potential of the helicopter industry, as that is one of the most innovative areas when it comes to the potential of the use of helicopters.
SMFL is a leading Japanese leasing company for more than 50 years. While SMFL is a major leasing company, they are not solely focused on the aviation sector.
While they do lease out aircraft and engines, they also provide other asset-based finance such as real estate, in addition to other types of finances like financial leases, and more economical leasing.
The joint venture both companies have created currently has a big portfolio. The portfolio exists of 38 aircraft with a value of $420 million, which has doubled in the 2 years that these 2 companies started to work together.
Cooperation like this could be seen as a substantial effort to explore uncharted territories by the bigger companies such as AerCap or Avolon. These uncharted territories are, as explained earlier, the helicopter industry.
While it may seem small at a first glance, it is usurpingly impactful. There are many reasons why an airline would be reliable on a helicopter, depending on the type of business model it has.
If an airline would be more focused on rescue operations, it would be more reliant on helicopters than if the airline’s main core of operations is to transport goods from one place to the others.
Both markets could be using the leased helicopter for a longer period of time, however. This is what makes the market so lucrative.
