Hélidax, a subsidiary of DCI and INAER, and the Army's light aviation school (EALAT) in Dax (France), celebrated a major event Wednesday: the training base has recently surpassed the 50,000 flight hour milestone with EC120 Colibri aircraft, in their Calliope configuration.

This performance was achieved by the base in less than 3 years of operation, thanks to the extreme availability of the fleet provided.

Hélidax implements a partnership contract that concerns the supply of helicopter flight hours, for 22 years, for the EALAT. It concerns the availability of modern aircraft and the corresponding maintenance services.

32 of the 36 Helidax aircraft are available to EALAT trainees at the same time, every morning, and 100% of the assets requested by the school were supplied. Since May 2010, Hélidax aircraft have taken part in training over 500 trainee pilots from the different components of the French armed forces (army, gendarmerie, navy and air force) as well as Belgian and Nigerian pilots and trainee instructors.

For 2012, Hélidax fleet activities represented 21,000 flight hours, or 14,000 flights. On an average, 14% of the hours were performed during night flights.

“We are extremely pleased to reach this milestone and can therefore foresee the future with optimism,” declared Jean-Louis Rotrubin, Hélidax's Chairman.

“As the first public-private partnership launched by the French Ministry of Defense in 2008, Hélidax shows its relevance and we perfectly meet our customers' expectations,” Rotrubin added.

Général Marc Demier, commanding officer of the EALAT school, said: “The outsourcing of flight hours and maintenance associated with training by military instructors, which is the EALAT's core activity, is a model performance! This combination is a major asset to prepare future combat pilots for new generation helicopters. I am delighted with the success of this partnership that has aroused the interest of many”.