Elite Helicopters announced it has expanded its base of operations for both the helicopter flight training and commercial air transport aspects of its business.
A suite of offices have been taken on at Fairoaks Airport in Surrey, England, and opened for business at Fairoaks on June 15, 2016.
Sharon Douglas and Glenn Curtis, who have co-owned and managed Elite Helicopters for the last 21 years, consider this to be a perfect extension to their already successful business at Goodwood Aerodrome in West Sussex.
Glenn Curtis said: “We see this as the perfect enhancement of our existing business at Goodwood and in our 21st year we are very excited about this opportunity. Fairoaks Airport is ideally located just to the south of London with easy access to the M25 and links to the south east. It offers us a ‘corridor of opportunity’ as we will now be able to offer a variety of helicopter flight training courses from either base, effectively giving us an area of operation for the training school stretching between the South Coast and London, and the location will also ideally complement our already very busy air charter operation.”
Elite Helicopters operates as an ATO and conducts ab-initio private pilot (PPL/H) training as well as type ratings, CPL(H) modular and flight instructor courses. The company will be operating the Guimbal Cabri G2, Robinson R44, Bell 206 Jet Ranger and AS350 Single Squirrel helicopter from both its Goodwood base and the new operation at Fairoaks. It hopes to add more aircraft types as it goes forward, depending on demand.
Elite Helicopters is also an approved European Aviation Safety Agency air operator certificate (AOC) holder and currently operates a fleet of 15 single- and twin-engine helicopters (Robinson R44, Bell Jet Ranger, Bell Long Ranger, AS350 B3 and B3e Squirrel and Leonardo-Finmeccanica A109 Power, Grand and SP models) on commercial air transport ops and will be adding the Leonardo-Finmeccanica A169 to its AOC later this year with two A169s intended to be operational by the start of 2017.
Glenn Curtis said: “As well as expanding our training facility for the various courses on offer our intentions is to also enhance the charter service we already offer with particular emphasis at Fairoaks on services to and from London and The London Heliport at Battersea, the special events at Goodwood and all the major horse race meetings. We will also be offering general and corporate charter, aerial filming and photography, sightseeing trips and pleasure flights alongside the flight training business from this new location.”
“All of this reflects a considerable investment in not just financial terms but also in time and effort, but we are really excited about this expansion and are looking forward to the challenges ahead,” the company said in a statement. “Onwards and upwards.”
