Safran Helicopter Engines: Celebrating More Than 30 Years in Asia

Valerie PATUEL

Managing Director of Safran Helicopter Engines Asia and CEO of Safran Singapore • Safran

Interview with Valerie PATUEL, Managing Director of Safran Helicopter Engines Asia and CEO of Safran Singapore.

How is Safran committed to the Asia Pacific region?

2021 was an important milestone as it marked the 30th anniversary of our presence in Asia-Pacific. Since then our regional footprint soared with offices in Australia, China, India and Japan. This is how we ensure proximity to better serve our operators.

What does proximity support mean to you?

We are committed to being responsive. Hence, we have invested in a regional stock of parts, a modern training facility and a state-of-the-art maintenance center.

Safran’s team is working around the clock to make sure that our operators can fly. Users can rely on our Field Technicians and Field Representatives strategically placed close to their operations. In addition to India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, we further boosted our proximity with a new technical Field Representative based in South Korea.

We also built a network of one-stop-shop certified maintenance and distribution centres to enhance the proximity support to all operators in the Indian subcontinent and South-East Asia. Recently we further developed this network with a fourth partner, based in the Philippines.

How do you ensure your customers are satisfied?

Helicopter operations are at the heart of what we do. To name just one example, we team up with our operators for a yearly“Asian Customer Council”, a focus group where operators drive our product and services improvement plans.

In a continuous effort to satisfy our customer needs, we have been tailoring support packages to exactly meet their mission requirements with peace of mind. With this approach we can now proudly say that 50% of our customers’ activities are covered under Safran’s Support By the Hour programs (SBH®).

How is Safran doing its share for sustainability?

Safran Helicopter Engines is playing a key role to decarbonize the helicopter industry. We already certified all our engines to fly with up to 50% drop-in of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). Further on going research should allow SAFs to replace 100% of fossil fuel in a near future with no required modifications on the helicopter, cutting CO2 emissions by up to 80%.

We are actively promoting SAF usage in Asia as demonstrated by our recent partnership with ST Engineering to assist helicopter operators in this transition.

Any other innovations?

On top of the SAF contribution, Safran is designing hybrid propulsion solutions as another key to reducing the helicopter industry’s carbon footprint. By combining thermal and electrical energy, helicopters could reduce their fuel consumption by 20%, thereby reducing CO2 emissions.

In addition to the environmental benefits, hybridization also opens up interesting perspectives on maintenance costs, noise emissions and flight safety.

We are committed to bringing responsiveness and customised support to our operators in Asia while doing our part for a sustainable aviation.

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