HI Uplift: Milestone welcomes renewed stability in heli markets

Milestone heralds the return to renewed stability in helicopter markets.

Helicopter markets are enjoying welcome stability after years of turbulence, according to Pat Sheedy, president and CEO of Milestone. During our wide-ranging conversation at European Rotors in Cologne, Germany, the CEO talked rotary markets, models, supply chain challenges and his cautious optimism for renewed growth. (Just don’t mention the need to fit tail cameras for offshore operations in Brazil).  

“Since 2020/2021, we’ve seen a steady recovery in the demand for helicopters across all mission types, but particularly in offshore, with bankruptcies of the past decade now firmly in the rearview mirror,” Sheedy tells us. “Institutional memory starts to fade somewhat, but on top of that, the market has performed very well over the past four years, the market has remained very stable thanks to disciplined OEM production, measured growth from most lessors.”

This achievement – particularly over the past 24 months – has been delivered against unprecedented geopolitical and macro volatility. That has manifest in the form of shocks such as Middle East wars coupled with (at times) falling oil prices which, in previous times, would have had a much bigger impact on the helicopter market. “I think that’s testimony to the restructuring that the industry went through in the past decade, and the disciplined approach adopted since. We’re now seeing the benefits of that. The market is in a strong position and year over year continues to show positive signs.” 

Offshore oil and gas

The offshore oil and gas market remains central to Milestone’s business. The lessor has accumulated a $3.5bn portfolio of about 340 helicopters. Of that total, about 20% are deployed in EMS roles in Europe and Australia and about 10% in search and rescue (benefiting from generally longer term and stable government contracts). A further 10% of the fleet is devoted to utility operations such as firefighting.

But about 60% of Milestone’s fleet operates in the offshore market – a percentage he sees continuing. “If you look at the capital that we’ve deployed this year alone, we’ve invested over $400m in the helicopter sector, with a significant portion of that directed towards offshore oil and gas,” Sheedy tells us. “We remain committed to funding this space. While some lessors or banks take a different view, we believe it continues to be a growth market.”

Further evidence of that growth came on the first day of European Rotors when the lessor revealed it had signed lease agreements with Bristow for five new Airbus H160 helicopters. The aircraft, four of which are scheduled for delivery this month, will support Bristow’s oil and gas operations in Nigeria. The fifth helicopter will be delivered in September 2026.      

The Airbus H160 (pictured above) offers promising new technology to complete in the medium market. Sebastian Moulin, chief commercial officer, Milestone highlights its virtues – particularly over the medium range. “At a range of 100 nautical miles, the H160 carries as many passengers [as other mediums] but at a lower operating cost,” he says. The new, fuel efficient engines deliver cost advantages that can’t be ignored over the mediums range.

‘H160 hits that niche’

Sheedy positions the H160 in the offshore market like this: “There are  hundreds of  AW139s in service, which have dominated the space for the past number of years. The H160 doesn’t necessarily compete with the AW139 on most missions,” he explains. “But it does perform very well in the lower part of that mission. The H160 really hits that niche. We think it’s going to be an excellent aircraft for offshore.” But he sees the H160 and other new helicopters as replacing legacy types rather than being required to fulfil incremental growth.

At the heavier end of the offshore market, he identifies fewer than 200 S-92s and about 60 super-mediums. Sikorsky wins praise for overcoming some of the supply chain challenges that previously confined aircraft to the ground. “Right now, the S-92 [recently benefiting from a substantial supply chain investment from Sikorsky] is performing very well for Milestone and our customers,” says Sheedy. “There is no sign of major retirements any time soon – certainly not within the next three to five years and our fleet is operating at 100% utilisation. So, there isn’t a significant requirement for super-mediums to enter the fleet.” That he expects to happen on a managed and graduated basis.

Supply chain challenges are continuing to delay deliveries and lower the utilisation rates across most types of helicopters. Added to this, the varying requirements of different markets can add up to an expensive cocktail of problems for aircraft leasing.

“One of the fundamental challenges for a lessor is the bespoke nature of configurations,” he says. “You have very specific regional requirements, such as those in Australia or in Brazil, which with ongoing supply chain challenges across the board, makes it difficult to transition aircraft from one jurisdiction to another.”

‘Extra costs and downtime’

So, for example, if a tail camera is required for offshore operations in Brazil but not in the North Sea, transferring assets between the two can be frustrating – particularly if the camera supplier has a six-month delivery delay. “That lack of consistency in requirements and configurations means extra downtime and leads to extra costs across the board – not just for Milestone, but for our customers,” says Sheedy.

Moulin also highlights the difficulty of transferring EMS assets between lessees with different configuration priorities. “One of the challenges on the EMS side is that assets are a lot harder to transition from one lessee to another because they are configured for specific missions,” he says.

“We’ve completed numerous transitions on the oil and gas side, proving the concept of moving the aircraft from lessee A to lessee B without long downtime. However, on the EMS side, technology upgrades are expected and it’s more difficult to anticipate requirements and re-configure assets in a timely manner,” explains Moulin.

Fortunately, Milestone can draw on its strong technical teams to make reconfigurations as quickly and as efficiently as possible. Out of the lessor’s total workforce of about 40, around one third work in technical teams delivering a much-valued capability to “manage the metal”.

HI Uplift Dashboard: Helicopters for sale

Multi engine

• Total for sale/lease: 274 – one more than last week
• Percentage for sale/lease: 3.59%
• Absorption rate: 3.59 months
• Total fleet: 7,626 – seven more than last week.

Single engine

• Total for sale/lease: 436 – two fewer than last week
• Percentage for sale/lease: 3.73%
• Absorption rate: 3.59 months
• Total fleet: 11,693 – nine more than last week.

Source: AMSTAT, November 28th, 2025.