Helicopter Lease and Purchase

With leasing and purchasing expertise in various countries, Soha Europe Invest company manages to offer helicopter purchase/lease services all around the world particularly Asia and the Middle East. Soha Europe Invest team forges lasting relationships with leading helicopter operators worldwide, who value the integrity, experience and long-term commitment of our leadership team and financial sponsors. As a company expert in providing helicopter services, we understand the difficult fleet management and market challenges operators face. The fleet that we can provide includes Airbus and Bell helicopters. 

For the average helicopter operator, leasing offers many advantages over buying. The first big advantage of an operating lease is capital cost. Rather than take out a bank loan and pay millions of dollars upfront, an operator gets to pay for their leased helicopter just like they do for their telephone and internet access. 

The benefit isn’t just a matter of cash flow. In contrast, an operating lease payment is just a monthly expense; it leaves your balance sheet alone, which means it does not cut into your ability to borrow. 

Thus, the leasing company (the “lessor”) finances a leased helicopter, similar to how a landlord finances a rental apartment. This means that the lessor also takes the risk of carrying the multi-million dollar cost of the aircraft, which reduces the financial exposure of the lessee.

Not having to pay outright for helicopters has been a big boon for the oil and gas industry and for the sector’s helicopter providers who are widely acknowledged as the driving force behind helicopter leasing growth. Their preference for operational leasing makes sense, as oil and gas helicopters are typically expensive medium/heavy twins at the high end of the price scale. The growth of the oil and gas sector, and its demand for worldwide service, is a time-sensitive opportunity. In many instances, it is smarter for a helicopter operator to lease a third party’s available helicopters today rather than order and wait for new ones of their own. Waiting could leave their customers’ unsatisfied demands to the competition.

While helicopter leasing started in the oil and gas industry, newcomers are now tackling other industries. Fabrice Arfi, vice president for business development and sales coordination at Airbus Helicopters, is observing this trend. “Some of the early players are leaving the oil and gas industry with a particular interest in non-military governmental markets, such as training, and search and rescue.” He adds that police and EMS services are also becoming more interested in helicopter leasing because it represents a way to outsource helicopter purchasing to the private sector in an affordable and predictable manner.