Heliswiss

Heliswiss
IATA ICAO Call sign
- HSI HELISWISS
Founded1953
HeadquartersBern Airport (canton of Bern), Switzerland
Websiteheliswissinternational.ch
Heliswiss Headquarters at Berne-Belp

Heliswiss AG is a Swiss helicopter company with headquarters on the property of Bern Airport in Belp, Switzerland, near Bern.[1]

History

Agusta-Bell 206B Jet Ranger

Heliswiss - the oldest helicopter company in Switzerland - was founded as „Heliswiss Schweizerische Helikopter AG“ with headquarters in Berne-Belp on April 17, 1953. This was the beginning of helicopter flying in Switzerland. During the following years Heliswiss expanded in Switzerland and formed a network with bases in Belp BE, Samedan GR, Domat Ems GR, Locarno TI, Erstfeld UR, Gampel VS, Gstaad BE and Gruyères FR.

During the build-up of the rescue-company Schweizerische Rettungsflugwacht (REGA) as an independent network, Heliswiss carried out rescue missions on their behalf.

Heliswiss carried out operations all over the world: in Greenland, Suriname, North Africa and South America.

The first helicopter owned by Heliswiss was a Bell 47 G-1. It was registered as HB-XAG on September 23, 1953. From 1963 Heliswiss started to expand and began to operate with medium helicopters like the Agusta Bell 204B with a turbine power of 1050 HP and an external load of up to 1500 kg. From 1979 Heliswiss operated a Bell 214 (external load up to 2.8 t). Since 1991 Heliswiss operates a Russian Kamov 32A12 which was joined by a second one in 2015.

Current fleet

The heavy helicopter Kamov 32A12 HB-ZFX is operated by Heliswiss International AG.
Aérospatiale Lama

Swiss Helicopter's fleet comprises some 36 helicopters (as at December 2013):[2]

"'Heliwiss Fleet"'
Aircraft In Fleet Passengers Notes
AS350B3,D2 17 5
Aerospatiale SA 315B Lama 1 4
Eurocopter EC120 Colibri 5 4
Bell 206 2 4
Kamov KA-32A12 2 16 operated by Heliswiss International AG
Schweizer 269/300 C 3 2
Super Puma 1 19
EC130 1 6
Guimbal Cabri G2 2 1
EC135 1 7
Total 36

Bases

Flughafen Bern-Belp, Samedan GR, Domat/Ems GR, Locarno Airport, Erstfeld UR, Gampel VS and Gruyères FR.

Products

  • Flight-training (basic training, commercial pilot, mountain training, night-flight)
  • Charter flights
  • VIP-flights
  • Heli-skiing
  • Film- and foto-flights
  • External load flights (up to 5000 kg), logging
  • Firefighting

Partners/Subsidiaries

References

  1. ^ "Bern-Belp base Archived 2011-07-11 at the Wayback Machine." Heliswiss. Retrieved on 25 February 2011. "Heliswiss is an international helicopter company based at Bern-Belp Airport."
  2. ^ swissheli.com: Heliswiss Flotte Retrieved 20 January 2013