Heli Transair president Eberhard Herr takes the keys to the company’s new A109E Power from Agusta’s Angelo Raimondi. Herr said of the aircraft: “The 109 is perfect for ceos because employees find it more acceptable to see a smaller helicopter landing to pick up their boss.”

Germany’s Heli Transair has added a brand new Agusta 109E Power to its fleet. Company president Eberhard Herr said: “We opted for this aircraft because it’s the quickest helicopter in its class on the market. The clients that we fly seem to prefer the smaller aircraft, rather than something like a Dauphin, which we operated last year.”

The company already has past experience operating a used 109. Herr added: “It’s like a flying Ferrari. Customers for it will typically be ceos from industry and banks in the Frankfurt area. The 109 is perfect for them because employees find it more acceptable to see a smaller helicopter landing to pick their boss up. Yet the passenger doesn’t want to lose time in the air by flying with something like the EC-120.”

Heli Transair owns all of its fleet, which includes an R22, R44, AS350 B2, two BO105s and a BK117. “We’re expanding our fleet in correlation with the increase in our revenues and over the last three years these have risen by between 25 and 30 per cent every year. Nevertheless, at the moment the German economy is very poor, so I don’t think we’ll be able to continue the expansion this year,” said Herr.

The company generally aims to replace its aircraft after they have flown for either three years or a maximum of 1,000 flight hours. Herr said: “Despite the current economic situation, our basic contracts bring in enough income to necessitate this latest addition.

“I envisage that it will typically fly between Frankfurt and Düsseldorf

or Frankfurt and Zurich, Switzerland, either facilitating business jet

flights or carrying out regular and

ad-hoc charters.”