Customer Collaboration Helps ACH Develop New Cabin Option

GENEVA—Airbus Corporate Helicopters formally handed over the first ACH160 to feature the Lounge configuration of its Line cabin. The aircraft was delivered during a short ceremony on the company’s stand at the European Business Aviation Conference and Exhibition (EBACE 2024) here, where the aircraft will be on display until the end of the show.

This is the first ACH160 delivered of five ordered by Air Corporate, based in Verona, Italy. The company’s fleet includes several ACH types as well as Leonardo and Robinson helicopters, alongside Pilatus PC-24 jets. It also offers its customers the use of a Bombardier Challenger 300 operated by Geneva-headquartered Sparfell.

Air Corporate also announced it is buying two more ACH145 aircraft in the Line cabin configuration. This brings the total number of aircraft the company is buying from ACH to 45; the first 43 orders were announced at EBACE last year.    

The relationship between Airbus Corporate Helicopters (ACH) and Air Corporate has become a genuine partnership, with Air Corporate’s input helping ACH to develop the Line Lounge cabin specifically to meet its requirement.

“This version didn’t exist before,” Air Corporate CEO Paolo Serini told Aviation Week Network ShowNews. “Airbus produces the Line and the Exclusive. This is in the middle, because we want a nice helicopter, but light, to have better possibilities to carry passengers and to take them very far.”

The Lounge cabin is around 350 kg (770 lb.) lighter than the Exclusive option, in part because the Lounge does not have the hinged doors, double-glazed windows and electrical footstep that are fitted to Exclusive versions.

Serini, who is a pilot and has already flown about 60 hr. in the ACH160—including some time with eight passengers, baggage and a full fuel load—said the aircraft is “very fast and [has] very good performance.” In this configuration, the fully loaded ACH160 will provide endurance of around 3 hr. 30 min. and a 420-nm range. “For us, it’s the best solution,” Serini said. “In terms of fuel endurance, we have around 80 nm more than the Exclusive and 10 kt. more in terms of speed. This is very important.”

Having developed the Lounge concept for Air Corporate’s five 160s, ACH is now offering it to other customers. Frederic Lemos, head of ACH, said eight of the nine ACH160 sales the company booked in 2023 are for this cabin configuration—although Air Corporate’s aircraft are bespoke versions, featuring a wood cabin floor. The standard Line Lounge comes with carpet.

In addition to increasing the performance over the Exclusive version because of the reduced weight, the Lounge option will likely increase the resale value of the aircraft. 

“There’s a huge interest in terms of value retention,” Lemos said. “For example, if [a customer] wants to sell at five years, and it needs to be reconfigured for oil and gas, they remove the floor, install the oil and gas seats—done, and it’s compliant with oil and gas operations.”

The simple reconfiguration is possible because the options not included in the Lounge cabin are “based on the standard structural aircraft,” Lemos said. Adapting an aircraft from an Exclusive configuration “is less possible . . . almost impossible, let’s say,” he added.