New civilian helicopters: the models entering service now

Key points

• The Airbus H160 has been EASA certified since July 2020 and is now being delivered to companies worldwide, including deliveries announced in 2026.
• The five-blade Airbus H145 is in production and in demand, with a new order for eight more by The Helicopter Company announced at Farnborough on 20 July 2026.
• The Leonardo AW09 single-engine eight-passenger helicopter has an EASA-certified engine (30 July 2026), but we found no announcement that the airframe itself is certified.
• The Bell 525 Relentless was still in FAA certification in July 2026, with FAA pilots starting an integration-lab trial on 17 July.
• Electric vertical take-off aircraft (eVTOL) are not yet certified for passenger service in the UK; the CAA aims to have frameworks in place by the end of 2028.
• For our charters, nothing changes: every flight uses one of our five established twin-engine types, and none of the new designs on this page is part of our fleet.

What counts as a new civilian helicopter?

New civilian helicopters fall into three groups. A new civilian helicopter is one with a recent type certificate, a new variant that changes capability, or a design that has yet to be certified. A type certificate is the approval from a regulator such as the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) or the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that a design meets airworthiness standards.

For a charter customer there are three separate stages to keep apart. Certified means the regulator has approved the design. In service means companies are flying it. Available to charter means a company on a UK Air Operator's Certificate has one it can offer on your date. Many headlines mix these up, so we use the term in service only where a manufacturer or regulator source supports it. If you want to understand the rules behind those approvals, see helicopter safety and regulation in the UK.

Which new helicopters are certified and in service?

The clearest answer is Airbus. The H160 and the five-blade H145 are certified, in production and being delivered, and the Leonardo AW139 family is a long-established type with more than 1,300 delivered. The table summarises each programme with the source we used.

Note that the figures come from each manufacturer's own pages, often at maximum configuration; the charter layout is smaller. The charter figures for the aircraft we arrange, such as the AW139 with 8 passengers, are on our fleet pages.

What is the Airbus H160 and where is it flying?

The H160 is a medium twin-engine helicopter that Airbus describes as certified by EASA in July 2020 and as exceeding the CS-29 standard for large rotorcraft. Airbus lists two 1,100 shp Arrano 1A engines, a 150 knot fast cruise, 480 nautical miles of range, a maximum take-off weight of 6,050 kg and certification to run on up to 50 per cent sustainable aviation fuel.

Airbus names customers in offshore transport, emergency medical services, firefighting, search and rescue, law enforcement and private aviation, and its 2026 news list includes a delivery to Linfox in Australia on 15 September 2026, an order from Japan's fire and disaster management agency on 3 September 2026 and a helicopter joining Life Flight on 26 June 2026. The details are on Airbus's H160 page. A military version, the H160M, is a separate programme.

The H160 is a type to watch as industry news. It is not part of our fleet, and we do not offer it.

What is new with the Airbus H145 and H175?

The H145 is the busiest line in the Airbus civil range. The five-blade version, introduced in 2020, added 150 kg of useful load, and Airbus lists up to 8 passengers in a standard transport layout and up to 10 in a high-density one, with two Safran Arriel 2E engines and a range of about 351 nautical miles. Airbus's news page shows The Helicopter Company ordering eight additional H145s on 20 July 2026, and orders from Armenia and others in 2026. Details are on the H145 page.

The H175 is a larger twin, in service since 2015 according to Airbus, with up to 12 passengers in a corporate layout and 6 to 12 in a VIP one. It is built mostly for offshore energy, search and rescue and government work, as the H175 page shows. Neither is a new type in the sense of a first-time certification, but both are growing in service.

What is happening with Leonardo: AW139, AW169, AW189 and AW09?

Leonardo's established twins continue in production. Its AW139 page describes it as the best-selling twin-engine helicopter in its class, with more than 1,300 delivered, up to 15 passengers in the cabin, a 165 knot maximum cruise and 641 nautical miles of maximum range. The same page says it shares its design with the AW169 and AW189, so the AW139 is the reference point for the family. See Leonardo's AW139 page.

The AW09 is the genuinely new design. Leonardo lists a single Safran Arriel 2K engine, a pilot plus up to eight passengers, 140 knots maximum speed and 430 nautical miles range, and the aircraft is described by trade press as the first all-new design in its weight class for more than 30 years. EASA certified the Arriel 2K engine, Safran announced on 30 July 2026, and Aviation Week and AIN reported on it. We found no announcement that the AW09 airframe has an EASA type certificate, so we treat it as still in certification. Leonardo's AW09 page gives the specification.

The AW09 is a single-engine design, and we do not offer single-engine charter, so it would not join our fleet in any case. It is included here because readers ask about it.

Is the Bell 525 Relentless certified?

No: as of the latest reports we found, the Bell 525 is still being certified by the FAA. AIN reported in March 2026 that Bell continues to work with the agency to get the super-medium, fly-by-wire helicopter approved, and Aviation Week reported on 21 July 2026 that FAA pilots began trials on the Relentless Advanced Systems Integration Lab on 17 July, which it called one of the final steps before the type certificate.

Bell's own 525 page lists standard seating of 2 + 16 and a maximum cruise of 160 knots. Earlier schedule forecasts for the 525 have slipped, so treat any date with caution. Bell's 525 is an industry programme and not part of our fleet.

Where do electric air taxis (eVTOL) stand in the UK?

An eVTOL is an electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft, a battery-powered vehicle that takes off like a helicopter and can fly like a plane. None is yet certified for passenger service in the UK. The CAA's eVTOL Delivery Model (CAP 3169) aims to have frameworks in place by the end of 2028 for initial commercial passenger eVTOL flights, and the CAA says new types will be certified against a UK version of EASA's SC-VTOL standard. It consulted on airworthiness, aerodromes, operations and pilot licensing between November 2025 and 29 January 2026 and published further consultations in May 2026. See the CAA's advanced air mobility page.

Developers are moving, but certification is still pending. Joby's newsroom shows that on 22 July 2026 it finalised a deal with Virgin Atlantic to bring an electric air taxi service to the UK, and it lists a Dubai launch market, but its newsroom shows no type certificate announcement. See Joby news. We could not confirm from an EASA source that any eVTOL has an EASA type certificate, so we do not treat one as certified.

Even once certified, eVTOL range and payload are small compared with a helicopter. For the foreseeable future, charter for 100-mile business journeys will still be a helicopter business.

What does this mean for UK helicopter charter customers?

For our customers, nothing changes in the next year. Our fleet is exactly five aircraft, all twin-engine: the Leonardo AW139, the Airbus H145 D3, the Agusta 109 Grand, the Eurocopter AS355 Twin Squirrel and the Sikorsky S-76. New types arrive slowly in any case, because every company needs approved training, spares and maintenance before offering them. For a side-by-side look at ours, see the fleet compared.

We therefore say plainly: we do not offer any of the new types, and we choose the helicopter from our five that fits your party, route and weights. If you have a preference, tell us and we will check availability. Every one of them is twin-engine, which is the practical rule for night flying, over-water legs and larger parties. Our guide to choosing a helicopter sets out the trade-offs.

New types may bring quieter cabins, lower fuel burn and better single-pilot safety features. The H160, for example, is advertised as using about 18 per cent less fuel than the previous engine class. As they enter UK service we will update this page. For how charter works today, read how helicopter charter works in the UK, browse our fleet or ask us for a quote.