Canada’s helicopter industry, including Richmond-based Helijet International (TSX:HJI), has seen the recession’s impacts subside over the past six months to a year, Helijet president and CEO Danny Sitnam told Business in Vancouver (BIV) in a recent interview.
The industry, he said, has suffered over the past two or three years.
“Helicopters and aviation in general are driven by economic factors,” he said. “People aren’t going to fly or charter aircraft if their budgets have been slashed and cut.”
As a result, he said, the industry – and Helijet itself –had to hold off on new projects and expansion plans until the economy turned around.
“Probably in the last five years, like a lot of companies, we’ve back-burnered a lot of projects due to the economy.”
But the worst, he said, appears to be over.
“I think industry has taken it on the chin and there is recovery,” he said. “There seems to be some movement now in the mining areas of British Columbia and some of the big hydro projects that may come up to fruition will call up for more aircraft.”
See this week’s edition of BIV for details of Helijet’s just-announced expansion into Northern B.C.