Our journey into the aviation industry commenced in 1993 when South Asia (Pvt) Ltd, a subsidiary company under the Delmon Holdings group, was appointed as the exclusive agent for the Kazan Helicopter Company of Russia.

Forging strong local partnerships, South Asia (Pvt) Ltd representing the Kazan Helicopter Company and V/O Avia Export (export department of the Government of Russia), succeeded in securing the initial tender to supply MI-17 IV transport helicopters to the Sri Lanka Air Force. Incidentally this was the first time the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence purchased Russian made transport helicopters.

Since then our company has become one of the major suppliers of MI-17 helicopters to the Sri Lankan Air Force while providing the complete cycle of after sales services, including maintenance, overhauling, spare part supply and simulator training.

In 1995, South Asia (Pvt) Ltd further strengthened its’ position by being appointed as the exclusive agent to Avia Baltika Aviation Company of Lithuania (www.aviabaltika.com). Owning its’ own repair and overhaul facility in Lithuania, Avia Baltika enjoys direct links with most other manufacturing plants. The company boasts of a rich history of supplying spare parts to over 25 countries and, provided us with an immense advantage of delivering helicopter aggregates. The spare parts provided by Avia Baltika include gear boxes, engines, rotor blades, propellers and other essential spare parts for all Russian MI-17 IV’s helicopter fleets worldwide.

Our partnership was further enhanced when Avia Baltika acquired the largest helicopter repair and overhaul plant in the whole of Russia; the St. Petersburg Aviation and Repair Company (SPARC) (www.sparcavia.com). With having SPARC on board, we were able to venture into providing capital overhauls of MI-17 helicopters as well.

Our well consolidated partners have established themselves as one of the leading providers of helicopters and helicopter services, leading us to being awarded many contracts to overhaul and repair helicopters belonging to the Sri Lanka Air Force at the state-of-the-art overhaul facility of SPARC in Russia and Lithuania.

Avia Baltika also offers training of flight crews and technical personnel of MI type helicopters at the training centre owned by the company – AST Europe, Lithuania. The centre was opened in 2010 and it is equipped with two EASA certified MI-17 and MI-17-1V type simulators. The EST Europe training centre has at its’ disposal unique training methods based on up-to-date equipment. One of the services offered is formation flight training for flight crew and flight engineers (using two simulators simultaneously), as well as night flight training using night vision goggles (NVG), and training to fly over hostile territories as well as training in sea and land rescue missions.