Airbus Helicopters partners EAN Aviation to deepen West Africa operations

Left to right; Hadjia Bilikisu Adamu Sani (Director, Finance and Accounts, Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority); Arnaud Montalvo (Vice President Middle East and Africa, Airbus Helicopters); Captain Musa.S. Nuhu (Director General, Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority); Segun Demuren (MD/CEO, EAN Aviation); Gerard Franchini (Head of Regional Strategy and Commercial Development Africa and Middle East, Airbus Helicopters).

Airbus Helicopters Company has signed a partnership with EAN Aviation Limited (EAN) as a distributor for the company in West Africa.

This strategic partnership between Airbus Helicopters and EAN Aviation Limited focuses on the West African civilian market, excluding the Military. In essence, civil customers in Nigeria can now contract directly with EAN Aviation Limited who will be offering sales, servicing and support for helicopters in the West African region.

Segun Demuren, chief executive officer of EAN Aviation Limited, said EAN has been at the forefront of Business Aviation development in Nigeria for over a decade

Also, the strategic partnership with Airbus and EAN is the 7th of its kind globally. Nigeria, with the largest population in Africa and the largest GDP, offers substantial growth potential in domestic travel for Airbus Helicopters with EAN firmly positioned, as seasoned experts in the Nigerian and West African region to drive value creation.

Demuren said the company looks forward to leveraging its impressive network, in-depth market understanding to grow the helicopter services industry and to add value to Airbus Helicopters activity in the West African region by deepening connectivity and operational efficiency.

He further said Nigeria for example have 32 airports but 774 local governments that helicopters can access.

“We are glad to be affiliated with a brand that has gained the trust of millions of people, based on their decades of experience and millions of flight hours”, he said.

Arnaud Montalvo, Vice President, Middle East and Africa, Airbus Helicopters said safety remains at the heart of everything the company does, adding that the team strives to meet the highest safety levels, and will provide servicing and support to ensure the safe operation of all their aircraft and products in the West African region, which we know is very important to our clients.

According to him, we are thrilled to have EAN as our first independent distributor in the West African region. Their knowledge of the market is second to none. We are confident in their expert team to ensure the success of this partnership and excited about the opportunity to expand our footprint in West Africa by growing the civilian market for helicopters, which is well suited to the regions’ aviation needs, providing operational flexibility to develop the current transportation architecture.”

Commenting further Montalvo, said EAN has been selected in consideration of their local commercial structure, capacity to further develop local and ancillary markets, ability to support Airbus customers and contribute to customer satisfaction according to Airbus Helicopters’ Ethics and Compliance requirements.

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha is the Aviation Correspondent at BusinessDay Media Limited, publishers of BusinessDay Newspapers. She is also the Deputy Editor, BusinessDay Weekender Magazine, the Saturday Weekend edition of BusinessDay. She holds a BSC in Mass Communication from the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka and a Masters degree in Marketing at the University of Lagos. As the lead writer on the aviation desk, Ifeoma is responsible and in charge of the three weekly aviation and travel pages in BusinessDay and BDSunday. She also overseas and edits all pages of BusinessDay Saturday Weekender. She has written various investigative, features and news stories in aviation and business related issues and has been severally nominated for award in the category of Aviation Writer of the Year by the Nigeria Media Nite-Out awards; one of the Nigeria’s most prestigious media awards ceremonies. Ifeoma is a one-time winner of the prestigious Nigeria Media Merit Award under the 'Aviation Writer of the Year' Category. She is the 2025 Eloy Award winner under the Print Media Journalist category. She has undergone several journalism trainings by various prestigious organisations. Ifeoma is also a fellow of the Female Reporters Leadership Fellowship of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism.