This article is published in Advanced Air Mobility part of Aviation Week Intelligence Network (AWIN), and is complimentary through Feb 04, 2025. For information on becoming an AWIN Member to access more content like this, click here.
Airbus Helicopters CEO Bruno Even says the company will pause development of its CityAirbus NextGen electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) advanced air mobility (AAM) aircraft at the end of 2025 over concerns about the maturity of battery technology.
Speaking as the company announced its 2024 rotorcraft orders and deliveries on Jan. 27, Even said a strategic review of the program conducted at the end of 2024 concluded that battery technology had not yet evolved to meet the minimum level of performance needed to enter into service.
The prototype winged-multicopter CityAirbus NextGen made a first hop on Nov. 6 in Germany and will continue to fly throughout 2025 so the company can “continue to learn from the technology and architecture,” Even said.
“The launch of a new program depends on many factors, the maturity of the business model, and the maturity of the technology ... some of them need to evolve in order to be in a position to launch a new program,” he told journalists.
He said that while flight trials of the aircraft and its predecessors, including the original CityAirbus and the Vahana prototype, had been instrumental in advancing the company’s understanding of the technologies, they had not evolved enough to get to what the company considered to be “a minimum level of performance” that is able to fly missions of up to 80-100 km (49.7-62.1 mi.). When asked when he thought battery technology might evolve enough to advance the program, Even said it was “not in the near future.”
The announcement was a low point in what appears to have been one of the best results for the business unit in more than a decade, with the company recording 455 gross orders in 2024, a 10% increase over 2023 when 410 were recorded. Deliveries were also up with 361 aircraft delivered in 2024, compared to 346 a year earlier. Sales of light helicopters were the highest in a decade with 202 H125 and H130 single-engine light helicopters sold in 2024.
The most significant boost was for the Super Puma family of heavy helicopters, including the H225 and H215, of which 58 were recorded. Of those, 38 are destined for Germany’s Bundespolizei air support service, announced last summer.
Other H225 orders came from the Netherlands and the Japan Coast Guard. Even said he was encouraged that the company had also received orders for the type for 2025, including one from Iraq’s Army Aviation, which despite being announced at the end of 2024 was formally contracted in the first days of this year.
The company received just four orders for its newest family member, the H160 twin-engine medium helicopter, compared with 26 in 2023, but Even insisted this was not a poor result. He noted that the aircraft is now ready and equipped for every mission it had been developed for, including search and rescue, law enforcement, offshore operations and VIP transport.
“Performance [of the H160] is above expectation and availability is really at an exceptional level for a new helicopter entering into service ... so I am positive based on all the discussions I have had with the customer,” Even said.
He noted that the company had already matched 2024’s orders for the H160 just in January, and said he is looking ahead to a strong ramp-up in production rates for the aircraft.
Related Content
