A recent report, conducted by Dynamic Markets on behalf of UK-based helicopter operator PremiAir, showed that 60 per cent of business leaders say they would spend more time visiting key business contacts if they could find a more time-efficient way to travel to meetings, and 71 per cent of respondents confessed that their busy schedule means some key business contacts get neglected.

The executives interviewed in ‘Corporate Travel for Business Leaders’ also cited other potential benefits from reducing travel time pressure such as life being less hectic (63 per cent), more time to plan for meetings (46 per cent) and performing better in meetings (29 per cent) amongst others.

PremiAir md David McRobert commented: “The UK general election a few months ago really helped to demonstrate the effectiveness of helicopter travel to a wide audience, and we have been extremely busy

ever since.

“The helicopter allows business users to visit several different sites in one day, which would simply not be possible with a car or a fixed-wing aeroplane. We think of it as a ‘time machine.’

“It is excellent to see that business leaders are starting to see helicopter travel as a business tool to make their working days more productive,” he added. “Businesses that use these ‘time machines’ to alleviate time pressures on their executives will be the ones that benefit in the long term from increased productivity.”

The research report was commissioned by PremiAir Aviation Group. A total of 100 interviews were collected with ceos, mds and heads of sales and/or marketing in UK-based multi-site organisations with more than 250 employees.

The company has recently added a member of staff to its 140-strong team. Robin Taylor-Hunt has joined PremiAir as head of helicopter management and charter services. 

He is responsible for the division of the firm that manages helicopters on behalf of their owners, and

charters them out to the public. Reporting to him are operations manager Juli Mayhew and chief pilot Richard Poppe.