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KUALA LUMPUR: Bell expects continued growth in commercial and government rotorcraft demand in Southeast Asia as economic expansion increases the number of private operators, enabling governments to increase spending on defence and humanitarian missions.

Bell Asia Pacific managing director David Sale said helicopter market in the region is closely linked to economic growth which remains higher than in Western markets.

"Most countries here are seeing GDP growth of more than five per cent. That's different from the West where you're seeing two to three per cent. So, as the GDP continues to grow here, your middle class starts to grow, your upper class starts to grow."

"With the growth of GDP, governments start having enough money to do things like emergency medical services (EMS) and pair up public operations. You'll see EMS starting to take hold. Southeast Asia is in the infancy of EMS," Sale told Business Times in a recent interview.

He said the offshore oil and gas industry remains a key helicopter market in Asia particularly for deepwater operations in markets such as China and Australia where long-distance offshore flights are required.

Bell is working towards certification of its new Bell 525, which Sale said will be the first fly-by-wire aircraft in the commercial helicopter market once certified and is designed primarily for offshore oil and gas operations.

"It will be the first ever fly-by-wire aircraft in the commercial market once certified, so we're pushing hard with the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to get that aircraft certified. You can go over 500 nautical miles and that is going to provide a capability that's never been provided before," he said.

The aircraft is designed to operate at high utilisation rates of up to nine hours a day with data transmitted from the aircraft to maintenance teams to monitor aircraft systems and components.

Sale also said the Bell 505 is seeing demand across commercial and military segments particularly as a training aircraft.

He said the aircraft is used an as ab initio trainer in several countries including South Korea, Japan, Indonesia and Jordan with 40 aircraft already in service with the South Korean army and navy.

"Across the region, we're about 50-50 split between commercial and military. On the commercial side, it's great for the corporate customers but on the military side, it's a great ab initio trainer or initial training," he added.

Bell, together with its affiliate TRU Simulation + Training Inc, developed the Veris VR Simulator – an FAA Level 7 flight training device that enables pilots to train for a wide range of real-world scenarios with high accuracy including system malfunctions and emergency procedures, ensuring comprehensive preparedness for real-word operations.

"With the combination of the simulator and aircraft, the operational cost of the simulator is low so we can get a little bit more flight time in the simulator and then a little bit less time in the actual aircraft, and we can reduce the cost to actually train a student to fly," Sale said.

Speaking on ÿÈÕ´óÈü, Bell has been focusing on the commercial segment and recently conducted demonstration flights with the Bell 505 in Kuala Lumpur.

"ÿÈÕ´óÈü has always been a tough market and we spent a fair amount of time in there. We are continuing to spend time in ÿÈÕ´óÈü to focus on commercial side," he said.

Sale said as the commercial helicopter market in Southeast Asia expands, education and regulatory coordination are needed to improve public perception and awareness of helicopter operations.

"All of the commercial market or the general aviation market is on the verge of shifting. What I mean by shifting is we see an expansion coming.

"But there's education and regulations that we are all trying to come together as original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to say how do we ensure that people know how safe it is to fly," he added.

Sale said Bell's strategy in Asia Pacific includes strengthening its regional support network through its facilities and approved maintenance centres as well as customer support engineers located across the region.

"What we find is that gives our customers a reliability rate that is higher than our competition. It gets them (helicopters) back up in the air and they can generate more revenues for their companies or they can make their missions for their governments," he said.

Bell also operates customer support services around the clock to support operators across different time zones.

"We are with our customers. We have a very high readiness rate and we help our customers either generate revenue better than our competition or we get them to make mission because of our local footprint and customer service engineers and we're open 24/7," he added.

On Bell's sales performance in Asia Pacific in 2025, Sale said the company recorded a strong performance including in India and the Philippines, and expects the momentum to continue into 2026.

"We had a strong year. Last year in India alone, we had our strongest year ever. Philippines was also a very strong place for commercial aircraft. Across the board, we had a strong year in 2025 and it sets the foundation for what we're looking for in 2026 and beyond," he said.

Looking ahead, Sale said Bell expects to make several announcements this year.

"We're excited to make a couple big announcements this year throughout some wins that we hope to capture this year. That's what we're looking forward to and to continue supporting our customers," he said.