Magazine Helicopter Industry #102

HELICOPTER INDUSTRY I INTERVIEW I
C
hristoph Zammert, executive vice-president of
customer support and services at Airbus Helicopters,
describes the events of the last four months of the current
year. He talks about the role of the manufacturer in the
development of specific technical solutions in the midst
of the health crisis. He also explains how the spare parts
supply intended for its customers never stopped.
HI: When did Airbus Helicopters take into account the arrival
of a global pandemic?
Christoph Zammert: We went through two phases. And I
imagine that we did as others have done, because the crisis,
or pandemic, has its origins in China. We have a strong
presence in China. We were confronted with this virus for
the first time on our premises there; and confronted with the
way China handled it. Early on, containment measures were
taken, which disrupted our Chinese customers. But I imagine
that like many people, we first saw it as a local phenomenon.
Unfortunately, it didn’t stay that way. Quite early on, from
the end of February, at the very beginning of March, when
we saw the first cases in Europe, we understood that we
had to face a global, worldwide pandemic, as we may have
experienced during the SARS era, for example. We launched
an internal reflection on the scope of the phenomenon, both
for us, our business, but also for the business of our clients.
At the same time, we were contacted by customers who
started asking us questions. We have a tool that i allows
us to capture all the questions asked by our customers, so
we are able to see themes that appear, that are out of the
ordinary. And we recorded several types of questions. In the
beginning, everything was related to the means, products
and procedures for disinfecting cabins. We started thinking
about it. We talked to our colleagues in the group, both
Airbus Defence & Space and Airbus Commercial, because
they were facing the same problems. The theme itself was
not new. So we were able to concentrate all this in a first
information note that we distributed to our customers on
March 10, 2020. As we went along, we updated tis notice,
because we heard from operators that the recommended
products were not readily available, or that the procedures
were not necessarily suited to their operations. We have
therefore took the opportunity to issue an update. After this
period, the need arose to separate the cockpit from the cabin
to exclude, or minimize, the risk of infection to the pilots.
So we have undertaken several things. We looked at what
was already on the market, in terms of STCs [Supplemental
Type Certificates], and where this was not possible, where
there was no solution adapted to the platforms in question,
we developed solutions with some of our customers: we
collected some good ideas from our engineers or from our
customers. Thus, we have developed quick solutions, which
we have subsequently certified with the authorities.
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