Helijet International (TSX:HJI) is expanding to Prince Rupert.
The Richmond-based company’s plan is to build up a charter helicopter business alongside air ambulance services it will be providing to BC Ambulance Service (BCAS) under a contract it won last October.
Under the $94.7 million, eight-year contract with BCAS, Helijet will provide three dedicated Sikorsky S-76C+ helicopters plus staff, on call 24-7, to provide air ambulance services based out of Vancouver and Prince Rupert. While Helijet previously provided Vancouver-based helicopter services to BCAS for 12 years, the contract has extended the company’s reach into Prince Rupert.
With that branch of a new Prince Rupert-based business secured, Helijet president and CEO Danny Sitnam said the company bought previous BCAS contractor Vancouver Island Helicopters’ 6,000-square-foot Prince Rupert hangar at Seal Cove, plus the existing charter helicopter business from that location.
“It’s been a long-standing helicopter base that the previous operator has built up quite well, so we’re basically taking over from there.”
Sitnam said Helijet’s Prince Rupert business launched April 1 and consists of two helicopters: a Sikorsky S-76A for the company’s air medical contract with BCAS and a five-passenger Bell 206 Longranger for charters.
With the local economy struggling from downturns in its resource industries, Sitnam said Prince Rupert’s charter helicopter business has hit bottom. But he added that, in talking with local players in the forestry and mining sectors, indications are that the region’s economic fortunes could be on the upswing.
Sitnam said he expects most of the company’s Prince Rupert charter business to be driven by industry rather than tourism.
“We’re hopeful, and we’re there for the tourism industries and so forth – the cruise ship industry as it moves in and out could use helicopter tours – but it’s probably a small piece relative to the industrial work that’s available.”
Sitnam said Helijet isn’t planning any further expansion in B.C. for the next year or so, but remains “watchful. We’re taking a look and trying to stay in our knitting, which is air medical and passenger movements.”
He added that the company might expand the non-helicopter side of its business: Lear-31 fixed wing jet aircraft, used for longer air medical flights than helicopters can provide.
“We’re already in [that market], and there seems to be more room to grow for us in there.”
But Sitnam said in the near term the company’s focus will be on its new BCAS contract, for which Helijet will be upgrading its three BCAS-dedicated Sikorsky S-76A helicopters – including the one in Prince Rupert – to the higher-performance Sikorsky S-76C+ models in June.
“We’re going to absorb what we have on our plate right now for the next year.”