A helicopter carrying 13 people from an oil field in the North Sea to the city of Bergen crashed on Friday off the Norwegian coast, and there were no signs of survivors. Eleven passengers and two pilots — identified as 11 Norwegians, one Briton and one Italian — were en route from the Gullfaks B oil platform of the Norwegian energy company Statoil, the company and Norwegian authorit...
Jetsmarter the corporate jet charter company has branched out into the helicopter sector in New York (NYC) offering free helicopter journeys between Manhattan and high-society playground The Hamptons. The service will commence on 6 May so will cross the Memorial Day Weekend and will finish on 2 October. The company will run a scheduled service between the two dates between the destinations....
Argentina is mulling a contract with Russia for another batch of Russian-made Mi-171 helicopters, Argentina’s Deputy Defense Minister Angel Pablo Tello said Wednesday. The South American country has two types of Russian helicopters from theMi-171 family that are used for Arctic missions. "Argentina is considering buying new helicopters from Russia," T...
In the second of our series on the high-fliers in the helicopter investment industry, Helicopter Investor talks to Francois Gautier founder and chief executive of helicopter sales and leasing specialist AVINCO. He tells us about his ideal client, his father’s connection to the world famous Concorde project and about what Hollywood royalty would he want to take the lead in a movie about his l...
Scandinavian MediCopter has signed a five-year deal with Stockholm City Council to operate two medically equipped Eurocopter EC145 T2. The term will start in December 2017 and has a two-year option to extend. The MediCopter will operate within the Scandinavian Air Ambulance (SAA) remit. The SAA has bases that are spread across Sweden and Finland and is one of Scandinavia’s largest air amb...
Bell Helicopter has added a third flight test aircraft to its 525 Relentless helicopter fleet as the company works toward type certification and first customer delivery next year. The third example, tail number N525BN, looks different both internally and externally to its orange and blue siblings in that it carries more flight test instruments and sports a new red and white paint scheme. It...
Bell Helicopter is to axe up to 60 jobs at its manufacturing facility in Mirabel in Canada. The latest cuts are in addition to the 200 layoffs that were announced by the company in February. This latest round of cuts will mean that just under a thousand people will now be based at the plant, down from almost 2,000 employees just five years ago. Lucie Tessier, head of communications at Bell t...
MD Helicopters has appointed Kuala Lumpur-based the Sapura Aero sales house to cover the South East Asian countries of Malaysia, Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. It will be tasked with selling the company’s full range commercial helicopter products as well as the optional equipment and accessories to support them....
CHC Group, one of the world’s two largest helicopter operators, this week announced that it had decided not to make an interest payment on its bonds that mature in October 2020. It was due to pay $46 million on Monday. Although investors in the 9.25% senior secured notes are not happy, the company has a 30-day grace period before it is technically in default on these bonds. CHC could...
Columbia Helicopters has signed a deal with the US Forest Service to provide five aircraft under contract to assist in battling wildland fires. The helicopters provided will include two CH-47D Chinook helicopters that are equipped with newly certified internal tanks that will permit the aircraft to fight fires in urban areas. The company’s two tanked CH-47D helicopters will report to thei...
Dr Gary Clark, formerly Head of Vehicle Test and Integration with Airbus Helicopters, has joined Airbus Helicopters UK Ltd as Head of UK Civil Business on 1 April 2016. His experience both within Airbus Helicopters and the wider Airbus Group will strengthen the UK business, helping to support the company’s continued mission to improve customer satisfaction. Dr Clark joins the UK t...
Bell Helicopter’s third-generation tiltrotor, the V-280 Valor, is literally coming together in Amarillo, Texas, as the company enters the final stages of mating the wing with the fuselage. It’s a moment of truth for the engineers and fabricators who have been working on prototype aircraft, which is being prepared to fly in September 2017 as part of the US Army’s Joint-Mul...
