Helicopters in Shanghai

[Heliport]

ShanghaiDaily

City gets its first helicopter leasing firm

SHANGHAI Heli General Aviation Co, the city's first helicopter leasing firm, has started operations as it seeks to tap the huge potential in the general aviation market.

The firm is a joint venture between Shanghai Sikorsky Aircraft Co and Suzhou ULC Automobile Seats Co. With a registered capital of 20 million yuan (US$2.59 million), Shanghai Heli is 85 percent owned by Shanghai Sikorsky, a joint venture between US helicopter maker, Sikorsky Aircraft Corp, and Shanghai Little Eagle Science and Technology Co. The privately- owned Suzhou company takes the remaining stake.

"The helicopter leasing market in China is not so big now, but it is a very promising market in the future," said Cai Yan, an official with Shanghai Sikorsky, but she did not give further details.

The helicopter leasing firm is based at the city's only helicopter base at Shanghai Pudong Waigaoqiao Gaodong.

Shanghai Heli now owns two helicopters - a S-300C which can seat three people, and a S-333, which is a four-seater.

There are about 50 to 60 helicopter leasing firms across China, but Shanghai restricted the issue of the license in the past because of its crowded sky, industry officials said.

[Hidden Agenda]

“Crowded sky”? Spent 10 days in Shanghai recently, staying fairly centrally. Fantastic city but I never sighted an aircraft, fixed or rotary, in the sky. And there were many days when the sky was quite clear.

Can anyone else comment on the ‘crowded sky’ issue?

[helmet fire]

"clear skies" can be translated into the chinese "mun upo li"
:}

[007helicopter]

No crowdid skies, was mainly very murky when I was there a few weeks ago, whilst passing through Shenzhen airport I did see there was a Helicopter shuttle service to Hong Kong which was not there as I recall a year earlier.

[Torque Split]

I too was surprised not to see helos over the 2 massive conurbations. I did see helo-pads at the top of some big buildings. I inferred that there was a restriction applied by central government. I would be interested in investigating helo ops in PRC.

[Tango and Cash]

Something tells me that 50 or 60 helicopter leasing firms (or even 500 or 600) are highly unlikely to have enough helicopters to create "crowded skies" over an area the size of China.

Last time I checked, all flight plans required 24 hour government (read military) approval--quite a damper for EMS and most corporate operations.

[MikeNYC]

Any updates on this?

Are there charter operators these days in Shanghai for filming? Lots of governmental red tape?