Russian Helicopters negotiates service center setup in Azerbaijan
Russian Helicopters has held talks on setting up a helicopter service center in Azerbaijan with Azerbaijan Airlines and Silk Way Group at the 10th International Helicopter Industry Exhibition HeliRussia 2017.
Russian Helicopters CEO Andrey Boginsky, president of ZAO Azerbaijan Airlines Jahangir Askerov, president of Silk Way Group Zaur Akhundov, and CEO of Silk Way Helicopter Services Azer Sultanov took part in the negotiations.
Following the decision of the 16th session of the Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation between Azerbaijan and Russia, the parties confirmed their mutual interest in the project aimed at the creation of a service center for maintenance and repairs of the Russian/Soviet-build civilian and military helicopters in Azerbaijan.
Joint work on the project started in 2016. At ADEX-2016 International Defence Exhibition, Russian Helicopters and Azerbaijani’s Silk Way Helicopter Services reached an agreement to open a service center for maintenance and overhaul of Russian-made Mi-8/17 type helicopters in Azerbaijan. In order to implement the deal, at the beginning of this year Russian and Azerbaijani specialists looked into a possibility to open the center at Heydar Aliyev International Airport.
To continue work started at the 10th International Helicopter Industry Exhibition HeliRussia-2017, the heads of Russian Helicopters and Azerbaijan Airlines signed a document called “Key action plan to organize a service center for maintenance and repair of Russian/Soviet-made civilian helicopters in the Azerbaijan Republic”.
“Azerbaijan is our traditional partner; this country has vast experience using Russian helicopters. With this in mind, opening a service center for Russian/Soviet helicopters in Azerbaijan seems of vital importance. We have agreed with our partners on the relevance of the project and expect to sign requisite agreements and contractual documents until the end of summer,” said Russian Helicopters CEO Andrey Boginsky after the negotiations.
Currently, Azerbaijan operates a large fleet of Russian-made helicopters, including the Mi-8/17 type medium multirole helicopters and the Mi-24 and Mi-35M attack helicopters.