Press Release

Issued by Green Charter 2022.

April 19, 2010

Patriot Aerospace has introduced an emergency shuttle service to fly stranded passengers between Dublin, Belfast and Liverpool.

With the vast majority of flights still grounded following the volcanic ash phenomenon and aviation experts predicting continued flights chaos for the rest of the week, Patriot has stepped in to offer a number of unscheduled passenger seats to stranded businessmen and leisure travellers. Effective immediately, the executive charter company will begin running helicopter services from Liverpool to Dublin and Belfast on demand until the transport crisis has eased.

"We decided to launch the emergency flights in response to the demand from customers desperate to cross the Irish Sea. Since the aviation space shut down before the weekend we've been inundated with calls ranging from Dublin businessmen urgently trying to get to meetings in England to an entire family struggling to return to Ireland in time for a wedding," said Mark Souster, Patriot Aerospace's Managing Director.

The service, which begins with immediate effect, is set to run on demand until further notice. Seats are priced at £650 each for the flight between Dublin and Liverpool and £650 plus VAT for the Belfast to Liverpool route, both of which take approximately one hour in the twin engined helicopter.

Patriot Aerospace operates through three specialist aviation businesses: Patriot Aviation, Heliflight and London Helicopter Centres. Through these brands, customers have access to a nationwide, end to end general aviation service also including: learning to fly, buying or chartering; refurbishment, avionics, engineering and maintenance; and affordable access to VIP business and leisure helicopter charter.

The company is able to run the flights because while volcanic ash continues to affect upper airspace - the altitude at which scheduled flights operate - the lower airspace band used by private charter flights and light aircraft remains free and untroubled.

"Safety is our primary concern, but the layer of ash that has paralysed commercial aviation is at around 5,000 feet and as such poses no threat to flights travelling at around 2,000 feet," added Souster.