Helicopter Transportation Group (HTG) has become the launch customer in Scandinavia for the offshore version of the EC 155 B1. The first of two helicopters was delivered in mid-June, with the second one due at the end of the summer.

Both aircraft will be operated by the Danish operator DanCopter, in which HTG has a third share.

As part of a move to refocus its activities, the HTG Group has decided to concentrate on two main areas of development.

A spokesman for the company said: “One is the onshore market, where the group is already in a leading position that will be consolidated by the start-up of services between Copenhagen and Sweden, by aerial work in Norway, and by SAR flights around the Spitzbergen Islands; and the other involves offshore activities with DanCopter in Denmark, where the goal is to benefit from the possibilities offered by the development of oil fields in the northern confines of the Norwegian-Russian border.”

A Eurocopter spokesman

added: “The EC155 B1 version

offers improved performance in

high altitude and hot temp-

erature conditions as well as in

OEI conditions.

“The enhancement is directly related to the new digitally controlled Turbomeca Arriel 2C2 engines,

which offer 10 per cent more power. In addition, the EC155 B1 will be certified for an increased temperature range up to +50°C (instead of

+40°C) with corresponding enhanced cooling capabilities.”

What’s more, says the manufacture, the maximum take-off weight has been increased to 4,850 kg in order to provide the same useful load as for the EC155 B model.

The EC 155 B1 cruises at 275 km/h, and has a range of 810 km.

It can carry 12 passengers and a

13-passenger version is also proposed. The aircraft is rated for single pilot IFR.

Set up in 1990, HTG has since expanded in a series of buyout operations - SHS and Osterman Helicopters in Sweden, Airlift AS and Heliteam in Norway – and more recently with a takeover bid for Airlift AB again in Sweden.

Since its inception, the HTG Group has been one of Eurocopter’s main partners in this part of Northern Europe. The Group currently operates a fleet of close to 50 aircraft. About 85 per cent of them are from the Eurocopter stable, and include ten Dauphin N, N1 and N2 helicopters, a Super Puma AS 332 L1, 20 Ecureuil single- and twin-engine machines, and two Lamas.

HTG rents out aircraft from its fleet to commercial operators, such as Nolas in Norway (which mainly performs EMS duties), Greenlandair, and Schreiner, and also to companies within the group.