Air Alderney to start flying passengers by helicopter
AIR ALDERNEY has leased a helicopter, with crew, to begin services to Jersey.
The States of Alderney has issued the airline with a route licence to carry freight and passengers.
The Alderney government has also issued the airline with a licence to carry freight to and from Guernsey.
However, Guernsey’s Transport Licensing Authority has yet to decide if it is warranted to have a freight licence in addition to the one that Aurigny holds.
Air Alderney is working hard to overcome regulatory hurdles to start its passenger-carrying service.
It said it was still waiting to obtain its air operator’s certificate from the Guernsey licensing authority, 2-Reg, for its proposed route to Jersey.
‘We therefore looked at alternative means to enable our operations to commence as soon as possible and in order to meet the requirements of Alderney and its people,’ said a spokeswoman.
‘We were able to secure a lease with Heli Holland for a EC-155 helicopter with crew.
‘This aircraft is registered on Heli Holland’s Dutch AOC and will be repositioned to Alderney in due course.’
The helicopter can carry up to 13 passengers.
Air Alderney has two Britten-Norman Islanders which it wants to use for a proposed passenger operation to Lee-on-Solent.
However, the spokeswoman said new Civil Aviation Authority regulations meant the British authority was no longer adding air transport licences for UK routes to new AOCs issued by 2-Reg.
She said they had therefore entered into an agreement with Scandinavian aviation company Ben Air in order to fly into the UK.
They will be able to put their BN-2T Islanders on its Danish AOC.
‘All this has not deterred us from continuing to try to obtain our own AOC with 2-Reg and we are hopeful that the CAA and DFT find a resolve to this issue soon, at which point we would be operating all our routes under Air Alderney’s own AOC,’ said the spokeswoman.
Air Alderney aims to begin its Jersey service at the end of March.
