Europe’s largest aerial firefighting operator Avincis will get five of the newly modified 214ST helicopters from Australia’s McDermott Aviation.

At the tail end of a demanding European wildfire season, Avincis has signed a Letter of Intention for five of the McDermott 214ST medium-lift twin-turbine helicopters, scheduled for a 2028 delivery.

The 214ST offers up to 3,000 kg of useful load, a maximum external hook load of 3,582 kg, endurance of up to 4.1 hours and a cruise speed of 120 knots. Its twin CT7-2A engines and large cabin make it suited to water-dropping, the transport of crews and equipment, external-load operations and missions from remote or confined locations.

McDermott Aviation owns the Type Certificates for both the Bell 214B and 214ST series and is preparing to commence production of its modified Utility 214ST model, buildings on more than four decades of operational, engineering and maintenance experience with the 214 series.

John Boag, Group CEO of Avincis, said investing in versatile medium-lift aircraft was essential.

“These five aircraft give Avincis another powerful option within our integrated fleet. The 214ST’s lift, endurance and hot-and-high performance will strengthen our rotary-wing response, while its utility capability will allow us to deploy the aircraft across a wider range of critical missions throughout the year.”

By the end of July this year, Avincis says it had completed more than 12,600 firefighting flight hours and nearly 5,400 missions across Spain, Portugal and Italy – almost 90% more flight hours than at the same point in 2025 – while dropping more than 225 million litres of water.

The aircraft will be deployed across Avincis’ operations to support wildfire and utility operations, with their allocation determined by operational requirements and seasonal wildfire demand across the Group’s operating regions.

The latest acquisition by Avincis follows on from several recent announcements to increase its fleet including the June 2026 order for 15 Airbus five-bladed H145s and 15 Leonardo aircraft, 5 AW139s and 10 AW169s, and the July leasing of two Super Scoopers.

Avincis operates from more than 180 bases across Chile, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Italy, Mozambique, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden, and the company oversees operations from its headquarters in Lisbon, Portugal. With a fleet of around 210 aircraft (helicopters ~170 and aeroplanes ~40), Avincis has a team of more than 2,400 including pilots, crews, technicians and support.

Avincis is a vocal proponent for the need to expand European wildfire response capacity. At the Aerial Fire Fighting Series: Global Conference and Exhibition,’ in Rome, Italy, this year, it released a report that concluded: “Europe is dangerously unprepared to tackle a surge in wildfires across the continent and must act urgently and cohesively to expand aerial firefighting capabilities and investment levels.”

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