Canadian Helicopters

Canadian Helicopters
Subsidiary
Industry Transportation
Predecessor Sealand Helicopters & Okanagan Helicopters
Founded St. John's, Newfoundland (1987)
Founder Craig Dobbin
Headquarters Les Cèdres, Quebec, Canada
Area served
 Canada
Key people
 Don Wall (President and CEO)
Services Helicopter services
Revenue $154 million CAN (2010)
Parent HNZ Group, Inc.
Website www.canadianhelicopters.com

Canadian Helicopters, formerly CHC Helicopter Canadian operations, operates 132 aircraft from 43 bases across Canada which provides a broad range of helicopter services to include: emergency medical services, infrastructure maintenance, utilities, oil and gas, forestry, mining and construction, and helicopter transportation services. CH also operates three flight schools and provides third party repair and maintenance services. Canadian Helicopters also provides helicopter service in the United States in support of specialty operations including forest fire suppression activities and geophysical exploration programs.

History

An early production Sikorsky S-76A owned by Canadian Helicopters and used in the air ambulance role for the Ontario Ministry of Health.

Commercial helicopter flying began in British Columbia in the summer of 1947. Three ex-RCAF officers, pilots Carl Agar and Barney Bent, and engineer Alf Stringer, were operating a fixed-wing charter company, Okanagan Air Services Ltd., out of Penticton. In July 1947 they raised enough money to purchase a Bell 47-B3 and pay for their flying and maintenance training. Okanagan Air Services moved to Vancouver in 1949, was renamed Okanagan Helicopters Ltd. and, by 1954, had become the largest commercial helicopter operator in the world.

Toronto Helicopters was founded by Len Routledge and Douglas Dunlop. It was a pioneer in air ambulance services in Ontario. [1] [2] [3] [4]

Sealand Helicopters was founded by Newfoundland businessman Craig Dobbin in February 1977.

In 1987, Dobbin headed a group that purchased Okanagan Helicopters and Toronto Helicopters and merged them with his own company, Sealand Helicopters to form Canadian Helicopters.[5]

Until November 2000, Canadian Helicopters was the domestic operating arm of Canadian Helicopters International, a wholly owned subsidiary of CHC Helicopter Corporation. In 2000, Canadian Helicopters was divested to form Canadian Helicopters, Inc which was then renamed in 2012 as HNZ Group, Inc..

Bases

Canada

  • British Columbia - Fort Nelson, Fort St. John, Penticton (Flight School), Smithers and Terrace.
  • Alberta - Western Head Office Edmonton, Fort McMurray, Grande Prairie.
  • Manitoba - Southport (Kf Aerospace Defence Programs)
  • Northwest Territories - Inuvik, Norman Wells,
  • Nunavut - Cambridge Bay, Hall Beach, Iqaluit
  • Quebec - Corporate Head Office: Montreal, Les Cèdres, Chevery, Radisson (Whapchiwem)and Sept-Îles
  • Newfoundland - Bishop's Falls, Goose Bay and Pasadena
  • New Brunswick - Fredericton
  • Nova Scotia - Halifax (Air Ambulance)
  • Yukon - Whitehorse

Air fleet

Bell 212 (C-FOKV) registered to Canadian Helicopters at Cambridge Bay Airport, Nunavut, Canada

CH operates 132 aircraft

References

  1. ↑ Ornge Press Release (April 26, 2017). "Ornge celebrating 40 years of dedicated air ambulance service in Ontario". Vertical. Retrieved 2017-09-03.
  2. ↑ "ATAC mourns the passing Len Routledge". Air Transport Society of Canada. Retrieved 2017-09-03.
  3. ↑ "Leonard Victor Routledge obiturary". The Toronto Star. June 1, 2013. Retrieved 2017-09-04.
  4. ↑ "Douglas Weir Dunlop Obituary". The Toronto Star. 29 April 2014.
  5. ↑ "Canadian helicopter operators shake up" (PDF). flightglobal.com. 23 May 1987.
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