First Aviation Services acquires Heliblade

Connecticut-based maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) business First Aviation Services has announced its acquisition of California MRO business Heliblade.

Following the acquisition, First Aviation Services says it plans to merge Heliblade with its two other subsidiaries – Aviation Blade Services of Kissimmee, Florida, and and Piedmont Propulsion Systems of Winston-Salem, North Carolina – to form a new entity known as the First Aviation Rotary Wing Group (RWG).

Together, RWG’s three facilities will be able to provide main and tail rotor blade maintenance to a broad range of Sikorsky, Bell, Airbus and Leonardo helicopters, as well as a range of dynamic components. Across the three facilities, RWG offers almost 9,300m2 of floor space dedicated to rotor blade repair and related services.

RWG will be operated under the direction of John Brennan, currently General Manager of Aviation Blade Services, and Paul Bolton, currently Chief Operating Officer of First Aviation Services. Pablo Martinez, Heliblade’s Founder, will remain part of the company during the transition, and all employees of Heliblade have been retained as part of the acquisition.

“First Aviation’s Rotor Wing Group brings together three respected MRO companies with extraordinary rotor blade and dynamic component capability to service our worldwide customer base,” said Bolton. “We look forward to welcoming Heliblade as part of First Aviation and leveraging each facility’s experience, technical capability and engineering resources across all three RWG locations.”

Petroleum Helicopters International also announced the opening of a new MRO facility in Lafayette, Louisiana, alongside plans to provide MRO services to external clients.