On November 28, 2025, China Southern Airlines General Aviation and Airbus Helicopters signed an authorization agreement for a global maintenance center at the Asian General Aviation Exhibition, marking the official establishment of the Airbus Helicopters Global Maintenance Center in Zhuhai. Cai Lijun, Vice General Manager of China Southern Airlines General Aviation, and Cedric Bessette, Head of Maintenance Service Support at Airbus Helicopters, signed the agreement as representatives of both parties. Wu Zetong, Deputy Secretary of the Zhuhai Municipal Party Committee and Mayor, and Su Hu, Vice Mayor, attended and witnessed the authorization ceremony.
China Southern Airlines General Aviation and Airbus Helicopters have maintained a long-term strategic partnership. Previously, the two parties reached cooperation intentions on purchasing and introducing H175 and H160 helicopters for the offshore oil industry, and jointly building a "maintenance center, aviation materials center, and training center." They have carried out extensive and in-depth cooperation in multiple business areas, including aircraft introduction, helicopter operation, maintenance services, and aviation materials support. As a key component of the joint construction of the "Three Centers," Airbus Helicopters awarded China Southern General Aviation a Global Maintenance Center authorization certificate. This aims to leverage China Southern General Aviation's expertise in helicopter maintenance to provide global customers of the new generation of Airbus helicopters, including the H175 and H160, with a full-chain service encompassing maintenance, repair, and training, as well as the distribution of helicopters, spare parts, tools, and related upstream and downstream products.
The authorization of China Southern General Aviation as its Global Maintenance Center by Airbus Helicopters will further enhance Airbus Helicopters' global service system, significantly improve customer support response speed and service quality in the Chinese market, and provide global helicopter users with more efficient, convenient, and professional maintenance service solutions, thereby improving customer experience and reputation.
China Southern General Aviation will further strengthen its maintenance depth and component repair capabilities, providing customers with "one-stop" maintenance solutions and services. This will expand from basic services such as scheduled maintenance and component repair to include modification and upgrades, composite material repair, bonded warehousing and supply of aviation spare parts, localization of technical publications, fleet health monitoring data analysis, and other maintenance services, providing full lifecycle management services for helicopter fleets.
As cooperation between the two parties deepens, China Southern Airlines General Aviation will continue to increase resource investment, accelerate technological innovation and industrial upgrading, build a "large-scale safety, large-scale emergency response, and large-scale consumption" business model, continuously empower the national energy security, aviation emergency response, maintenance training, and aviation consumption industries, accelerate the development of general aviation and low-altitude industries, and contribute to the implementation of the national energy strategy, the expansion of the marine economy, and the vigorous development of the low-altitude economy.