Press Release

Issued by Leonardo Helicopters.

October 20, 2016

Leonardo-Finmeccanica announced today that it has signed agreements with Toll Helicopters of Australia (Toll Group) for the support of their new AgustaWestland AW139 Level D full flight simulator and to establish Toll Helicopters as an authorised training centre for the Australasian region.

The AW139 full flight simulator, jointly developed by Leonardo and CAE and installed within Toll's new state-of-the-art helicopter operational training centre in Sydney, has successfully passed the EASA and CASA initial qualification as full flight simulator Level D, first civil helicopter simulator to achieve both EASA and CASA recognition in Australia.

Regarding the simulator, very positive feedback has been received by the pilots for the quality of the device, its training capabilities and the unmatched level of realism of the synthetic flight experience.

The simulator is now coming into service and it will benefit from continued updates to meet the latest product requirements set by Leonardo. The authorised training centre agreement will establish Toll Helicopters as a regional centre for the delivery of quality AW139 training courses fully compliant with Leonardo's standards.

The arrangement includes a very close working relationship with the Leonardo's flagship training academy in Italy, which will also be responsible for training Toll Helicopters instructors and with the Leonardo's training academy in Malaysia, which will support the approval process of the authorised training centre and collaborate with it operationally.

These agreements mark another evolutionary step forward in the growth and development of the company's global helicopter training network and its commitment to supporting its customers as close as possible to the point of operations, as well as to reinforce its services in Australasia to support its growing helicopter fleet.

Mark Delany general manager, Toll Helicopters said 'We are extremely proud to be appointed as the authorised training centre for the region by Leonardo. This allows us to provide OEM supported training to all AW139 operations in the region. To have full access to Leonardo's training systems and technical support models guarantees the highest quality and fidelity of training for all aircrews.”

The AW139 has become the benchmark intermediate twin-engine helicopter with orders for more than 960 helicopters having been placed by over 240 commercial and government customers in over 70 countries for a wide range of roles including search and rescue, emergency medical services, offshore transport, executive/private transport, law enforcement, homeland security and utility. Over 30 AW139 have been ordered in Australasia to date. 

Toll Helicopters is part of the Toll Group, the Asia Pacific region's leading provider of transport and logistics and has more than 10 years' experience in providing helicopter emergency medical services for the Australian Federal Police in the Solomon Islands and the Australian Defence Force in East Timor and has previously provided disaster relief management support across the Asia Pacific region on behalf of the Australian government agencies.

Toll Group, part of Japan Post, is the Asia Pacific region's leading provider of logistics services, employing approximately 40,000 people across some 1,200 locations in more than 50 countries. Toll's second-to-none capabilities and global reach help provide customers with logistics solutions capable of serving the most comprehensive global supply chains.

Japan Post Co Ltd operates one of the largest domestic mail operations in the world with approximately 195,000 full-time employees across a network of more than 24,000 post offices throughout Japan.

Toll Group signed a contract for eight AW139s in early 2015 and is using these helicopters to perform emergency medical service missions in the southern region of New South Wales from the newly constructed base in Bankstown (Sydney), Orange, Wollongong and from the existing base in Canberra.

Toll's base in Bankstown, where the authorised training centre for the Australia's first EASA and CASA AW139 Level D full flight simulator is headquartered, also includes facilities for maintenance, crew training, the latest high fidelity virtual reality crewman and integrated crew training simulator and full Helicopter underwater escape training facilities. Toll's aeromedical crewing excellence (ACE) training centre is the most advanced training centre internationally, providing totally integrated technical and non-technical training for the first time.