Air Methods and Bell Helicopter Reach Agreement for 200 Bell 407GXP Helicopters
March 04 2015 - 4:01PM
Air Methods Corporation (Nasdaq:AIRM), the global leader in air
medical transportation, and Bell Helicopter, a Textron Inc. company
(NYSE:TXT), announced today an agreement for the sale of 200 Bell
407GXPs configured for Helicopter Emergency Medical Services
(HEMS). This order marks one of the largest commercial sales in
Bell Helicopter's history and one of the largest orders in the
industry's history. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in 2016 with
a 10 year contract term, which is subject to an early termination
right by Air Methods.
"Bell Helicopter has been a long term supporter of our
operations, and we could not be more pleased to continue our
partnership," said Aaron Todd, chief executive officer, Air
Methods. "We rely heavily on our aircraft to support our promise of
giving more tomorrows, and given the capabilities and performance
of the Bell 407GX, it is the right fit for our needs."
Established in 1980 in Colorado, Air Methods is the most
experienced air medical operator in the industry. The company began
with a single Bell 206 helicopter and has since grown to have
approximately 300 bases of operations that serve 48 states. Air
Methods provides air medical transportation for hospitals and
communities nationwide and operates eight maintenance centers.
"We take great pride in our collaboration with Air Methods and
our support of their life-saving services for more than 30 years
with our state-of-the-art helicopters," said John Garrison,
president and chief executive office of Bell Helicopter. "This
order demonstrates their ongoing trust in Bell Helicopter, and we
are absolutely thrilled to have them as our launch customer for the
Bell 407GXP."
All of the Bell 407GXPs will be equipped with United Rotorcraft
emergency medical services interior, designed with air critical
care operators in mind. The adaptable interior can accommodate a
single patient or specialty transport, and includes the
Articulating Loading System for easy patient loading. The United
Rotorcraft interior also provides integrated medical systems such
as medical oxygen, suction, air, storage, electrical power, and
approved provisions for securing medical support equipment during
all aspects of flight.
"In highly critical situations, you have to be able to rely on
your aircraft to perform, and that's what the Bell 407GXP offers by
integrating reliability, speed, performance and advanced
technology," said Anthony Moreland, vice president of sales in
North America. "The Bell 407 is our most popular platform for HEMS
missions, and the newly-upgraded Bell 407GXP variant will only
further increase customer demand for this aircraft."
Bell Helicopter has been a trustworthy partner with the HEMS
industry since its inception and continues to support the world's
growing need for time-sensitive medical transportation services and
access to critical care by providing safe and reliable aircraft. It
is for that reason emergency medical service agencies around the
world rely on Bell Helicopter products.
Derived from the Bell 407GX platform, the Bell 407GXP has an
additional 50 lbs (22.5 kg) of payload capability, coupled with the
new M250 Rolls-Royce engine that improves performance and fuel
efficiency delivering class leading hot and high performance. The
aircraft is also equipped with new avionics features such as a
hover performance calculator improvement, as well as a transmission
TBO extension of +500 hours that will lower maintenance costs.
Air Methods Corporation (www.airmethods.com) is the global
leader in air medical transportation. The Air Medical Services
Division is the largest provider of air medical transport services
in the United States. The United Rotorcraft Division specializes in
the design and manufacture of aeromedical and aerospace technology.
The Tourism Division is comprised of Sundance Helicopters, Inc. and
Blue Hawaiian Helicopters, which provides helicopter tours and
charter flights in the Las Vegas/Grand Canyon region and Hawaii,
respectively. Air Methods' fleet of owned, leased or maintained
aircraft features over 450 helicopters and fixed wing aircraft.
Bell Helicopter, a wholly owned subsidiary of Textron Inc., is
an industry-leading producer of commercial and military, manned and
unmanned vertical-lift aircraft and the pioneer of the
revolutionary tiltrotor aircraft. Globally recognized for
world-class customer service, innovation and superior quality,
Bell's global workforce serves customers flying Bell aircraft in
more than 120 countries.
Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking
statements which may project revenues or describe strategies,
goals, outlook or other non-historical matters; these statements
speak only as of the date on which they are made, and we undertake
no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements.
These statements are subject to known and unknown risks,
uncertainties, and other factors that may cause our actual results
to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such
forward-looking statements, including but not limited to changes in
aircraft delivery schedules or cancellations or deferrals of
orders.
Please contact Christina Brodsly at (303) 256-4122 to be
included on the Company's e-mail distribution list.
CONTACT: Trent J. Carman, Chief Financial Officer, (303) 792-7591
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