AgustaWestland, Alitalica Plan Helicopter Hub At Rome Airport

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The two companies are planning to establish what they say is the first helicopter hub in Italy at Rome’s Urbe Airport and to have that hub achieve operational readiness in 2009.

According AgustaWestland, the project’s investment is worth about €3.2 million ($5 million). The companies plan to set up a 22,000-sq-ft maintenance hangar and will offer a hospitality facility of more than 3,200 sq ft. The facility also is to include about a 2,600-sq-ft office building for the management of passenger transport and corporate helicopter services.

Representatives from AgustaWestland and Alitalica together with aviation sector dignitaries attended a ceremony for the signing of the companies’ agreement at Circolo Canottieri Aniene in Rome late April.

AgustaWestland and Alitalica, by joining their expertise in the helicopter field, will collaborate in marketing AgustaWestland helicopters and developing the VIP/corporate helicopter market in Rome and southern Italy.

In a related development, AgustaWestland recently opened a new business headquarters in Japan. Earlier this year, it opened a headquarters for regional business development in Turkey. The new Japanese facility is intended to help the company provide better service to its growing number of Asian clients.