Leonardo Helicopters has appointed RBI Hawker Australia as a rotor blade repair service center. With the approval, the Brisbane-based facility is authorized to offer OEM-approved helicopter rotor blade repair services on the Leonardo AW139 intermediate twin and AW109 light twin from its 1,000-sq-m (10,764-sq-ft) maintenance facility.

The approval from Leonardo follows the facility’s Part 145 maintenance organization approval from the Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority in June and as a customer service facility for Bell in July.

“This service expansion demonstrates our ongoing commitment to providing high-quality OEM-supported rotary blade repair services to both government and commercial Leonardo helicopters operators in the region,” said Jet Aviation v-p for northeast Asia Ian D’Arcy. “We look forward to working closely with Leonardo Helicopters to provide the quality customer service and support that operators have grown accustomed to expect from RBI Hawker, both in the Middle East and Australia.”

RBI Hawker is a joint venture between Hawker Pacific Airservices, a Jet Aviation company, and Bell.