Airbus Helicopters aims to improve product safety after accidents

It is just over a year since a police helicopter built by Airbuscrashed into a Glasgow pub, killing 10 people. Though an interim report by air accident investigators did not cite technical failure, Guillaume Faury, chief executive of Airbus Helicopters, says his company must draw lessons from that tragedy - and they are that safety has to be improved.

"We are introducing a new way of operating the helicopters," says Mr Faury. Among other things, all Airbus helicopters will now be supplied with flight recorders as standard equipment - previously there was no requirement for these "black boxes" on lighter aircraft, such as the one in the Glasgow crash in November 2013.

A former test pilot, Mr Faury's priority when he took over the helicopter unit of Airbus, the European aerospace group, in 2013 was to improve quality and reduce risk. The business has expanded rapidly to become the world's biggest helicopter manufacturer, with 46 per cent of the civil market and 11 per cent of military. But it has struggled operationally to keep up with its own success, and mistakes were made.

The Glasgow accident came after two Airbus EC225 Super Puma helicopters ferrying oil workers to rigs ditched in the North Sea in 2012 due to a faulty gear shaft. Nobody was killed, but in August 2013 there were four deaths when an older version of the Super Puma aircraft also ditched. Investigations into the causes are still ongoing, but these incidents followed costly delays on the Airbus NH90 military helicopter, developed in partnership with AgustaWestland and Fokker Aerostructures, and slippage on other programmes. "There were a number of challenges," says Mr Faury.

Some of these difficulties have been overcome. Following the problems with the EC225 helicopter, a new gear shaft is being fitted. The NH90 has entered service and is proving itself in military operations, although the helicopter is still struggling to win new customers after complaints about manufacturing faults - including seats not being strong enough to carry a fully-equipped soldier.

Mr Faury says the issues around the NH90 are being addressed, and they have certainly not curtailed Airbus Helicopters' ambitions in the military market. The company is putting its Super Cougar 725, a transport aircraft, up for one of the biggest military contracts of 2015 - Poland's $3bn utility helicopter tender.

"It is a unique opportunity to fulfil the needs of Poland and to grow as a company," says Mr Faury.

Meanwhile, the climate has worsened for a group selling to oil and gas companies and to public authorities. In December, Mr Faury told analysts at Airbus' global investor day that the civil and parapublic markets had fallen unexpectedly in 2014.

The sharp drop in the oil price since last summer has hit a client base on which Airbus Helicopters relies for 15 per cent of its sales. "Oil and gas companies . . . are slowing or stopping some big projects," says Mr Faury.

He insists that the delivery last year of the group's first new civil helicopter in a decade - the EC175, to replace heavier, older generation Super Pumas - will give Airbus the edge in a tougher oil and gas segment.

The EC175 was two years late entering service, allowing rival AugustaWestland, part of Finmeccanica, to clinch orders that Airbus might otherwise have won. Yet Mr Faury is not daunted. "I am convinced that a significant share of the previous generation will be replaced by the EC175," he says.

Nevertheless, the need to raise Airbus Helicopters' game is intensifying. So Mr Faury is poaching expertise from the car industry - where he spent four years with Peugeot Citroen during the worst of the automobile crisis. Car manufacturing is now "the benchmark in terms of standards and processes", he says.

Mr Faury and his new team has produced a five-year plan to improve safety, quality and performance.

But some analysts say this will not be enough. AgustaWestland's renewed vigour is putting pressure on Airbus to invest more in product development - especially in medium weight helicopters.

"AgustaWestland spent years and hundreds of millions developing new helicopters that are coming to market now," says Nick Cunningham, analyst with Agency Partners. "Airbus lacks enough new commercial product. They have just been so distracted with everything else that they have taken their eye off this segment."

Mr Faury denies his company is slow to innovate. Last year saw the entry into service of three new helicopters, including the EC175, and the X-4 - an aircraft with an all-composite structure - will be unveiled in March.

The Airbus Helicopters' boss knows the company will be judged on this product line-up and on whether he can prove its focus on safety is beyond reproach. There is only one way to do that, he says: "The track record has to speak for itself."

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