OREANDA-NEWS. Russian Helicopters, a subsidiary of Oboronprom, part of State Corporation Rostec, has granted certification to a service centre in Brazil run by Helipark Taxi Aéreo e Manutenção Aeronáutica. Sergei Ostapenko, the company's sales director for commercial helicopters, awarded the Certificate of Authorisation for the centre to Helipark's President João Velloso at a ceremony on August 12 in São Paulo, where Russian Helicopters is exhibiting at the Latin American Business Aviation Conference and Exhibition (LABACE 2014).

Certification of the Brazilian service centre will help to further expand the geography of successful operations of Ka-32 type helicopters in South America.

“We are very happy and proud on becoming Russian Helicopters service centre and we hope to give support not only to our helicopter but to others in the near future. Our Kamov Ka-32 is a great tool for several uses and unrivalled on its performance", said João Velloso, Helipark's President.

“Certification of the service centre is a natural continuation of our successful partnership with Helipark, and we believe it will have a positive effect on the promotion of Russian-built Kamov-brand commercial helicopters in South America," said Sergei Ostapenko, Russian Helicopters sales director for commercial helicopters. “This is a key region for Russian Helicopters, and we are keen to offer high-quality service to helicopter operators throughout the whole product life-cycle."

Helipark's authorised service centre will be able to offer a full range of repair and maintenance services for components and fuselages of coaxial helicopters under operational and technical documentation for the Ka-32A11BC, which the company has successfully operated since 2012. The Ka-32A11BC is used to carry industrial cargos on an external sling, as well as to support infrastructure construction works in remote regions of the Amazon basin.

Under agreements between Russian Helicopters and Helipark, the service centre will have access to technical materials, updated on an ongoing basis, for the Ka-32A11BC and its components. Russian Helicopters will provide technical support for maintenance work carried out by the Brazilian company on Russian-built helicopters and any structural changes needed to the helicopters, and also stands ready to organise professional training courses for Helipark staff.

The Ka-32A11BC currently operates in more than 30 countries around the world, including EU states, South Korea, China, Japan, Kazakhstan, Canada and Russia. It can fly missions ranging from search-and-rescue to supporting high-rise construction work, fire-fighting, cargo transportation inside the cabin or on an external sling, support for logging operations, evacuation of sick and wounded personnel, and routine patrolling and monitoring.

A key priority for Russian Helicopters is providing high-quality service and post-sales maintenance of helicopters. Today the company has service centres in South Korea, Canada and Spain, and is working with Rosoboronexport and Oboronprom on a number of further projects. Next year it is planned to open a service centre for Mi-8 and Mi-17-1V helicopters in Egypt, to be followed in 2016 by an Mi-35M service centre in Brazil and one for Mi-171Sh helicopters in Peru. Also in 2016 fitting work is expected to complete at a repair plant in India to service Mi-17V-5 helicopters. Russian Helicopters intends to continue the global roll-out of its network to bring it into line with global leading standards.