Norwegian company Helitrans recently bought the company Fjellanger Widerøe Aviation and has subsequently taken on its aircraft: a Fairchild Merlin IIIB, a Turbo Commander 690B and two Commander 690C aircraft. Helitrans has also signed a contract to purchase a Commander 690A, formerly operated by Solinair in Slovenia.

“The reason that we now have the new aircraft, is because we have bought the company Fjellanger Widerøe Aviation – we thought that was a good idea,” said technical manager of Helitrans, Gunnar Nyhus. “We have taken over the contract and this also includes their pilots and other personnel. The exchange happened on January 1.

“The company went bankrupt and the bank approached us to see if we were interested in buying it,” he explained. “It took us just a week to decide to take on this company, so it all happened fairly quickly.”

Helitrans already operates five Eurocopter AS350s and two Bell 214Bs for all types of utility work in Scandinavia and also currently has one 214B in Australia on a fire-fighting contract.

“As a helicopter operator, this move has given us another leg to stand on with fixed-wing operations,” he said. “Winter time is a low-season for helicopters, but the Merlin is flying practically every day of the year. This means we are making money at a time when we usually wouldn’t be. That makes a big difference to our business,” he continued. “I anticipate that this extra income from fixed-wing operations will boost our annual income by about 30-40 per cent.

“These new aircraft have increased our client base,” he said. “We now have a few customers for the Merlin, including the Coastguard, checking for pollution and fishing boats along the Norwegian coast. The Commanders are used for taking aerial photographs for mapping purposes in Scandinavia, especially in Sweden, Finland, Germany, Africa and Kuwait.”

The company has recently signed a contract to buy a Commander 690A, formerly operated by Solinair in Slovenia. This was initiated because a back-up aircraft was needed for the Merlin. It will primarily be used as a back-up for the Coastguard, but there are plans afoot to use it for air taxi and parcel delivery with UPS and Fedex as well.

“With the type of fixed-wing operation we are carrying out here in Norway, we have no real competition,” he said. “Maybe we will get some competition in the future for photographic missions, but I do very much doubt that. Regarding the Coastguard service, it is very specialised and to bid for a contract and to get an aircraft specified properly, would take about a year,”

he added.

The company helicopters are mainly used for construction work.

“I do not think that there will be much call for charter operations with the helicopters in the future because they are too expensive and the fixed-wing operations are modified for certain operations, so they can’t fly passengers,” he explained.

“The only aircraft that we can fly passengers in, will be the Commander from Slovenia,” he continued. “We get a couple of phone calls per week asking about charter, but at the moment, we don’t have any aircraft that we can use.”