Airbus Helicopters Summit Brings Utility Aviation Leaders to Vancouver

Airbus Helicopters held its third annual International Utility Summit in Vancouver, Canada, in October 2026. The company said the event brought together more than 100 operators, industry experts and regulatory representatives from North America and other regions.

Key details

• Discussions covered utility aviation operations, workforce expertise and training, and wildfire response, including initial attack, transport, reconnaissance and water delivery.
• Aircraft featured in examples included the single-engine Airbus H125 and twin-engine Super Puma family. Captions identified one H125 operated by Slave Lake for cargo transport, one H125 used by Phoenix Heli-flight, one H125 operated by the Seminole County Sheriff's Office for water-bucket deployment, and one H215 operated by SAF Hélicoptères to place the crown atop Marseille's Basilica of Notre-Dame de la Garde.
• Participants also discussed nighttime aerial firefighting and the use of night-vision technology, training and procedures.
• The FAA and Transport Canada Civil Aviation discussed regulatory frameworks and the integration of crewed aircraft with uncrewed aerial systems.
• Pete Anderson attended as Senior Manager, Helicopter Operations at Pacific Gas & Electric Company. The event also identified Pamela Gomez as FAA Director of UAS Technologies and Ryan Coates as TCCA Executive Director of Strategy and Emerging Technologies.
• Jodie Granley, Chief Pilot with Edmonton Police Services, has more than 25 years of utility-helicopter experience.

More than 100 participants attended Airbus Helicopters’ third annual International Utility Summit in Vancouver.

Why it matters

Utility helicopters support a range of work, from cargo transport and reconnaissance to wildfire response. Discussions about coordinating crewed aircraft with uncrewed systems brought aviation regulators and industry participants into the same conversation about airspace use.