I suspect that the best paid people in the helicopter industry on a consistent yearly compensation basis will be CEO of Airbus Helicopters & CEO of Leonardo Helicopters whom I suspect are pulling in well over 2m EUR a year (hard to find in their shareholder info). Then the leadership teams of the large leasing companies (500k-1m EUR) and the CEO of the big operators (c. 1-1.5m EUR+).
I've heard stories of some business owners across the world pulling in over $1m USD a year for a while but these are few and far between now and often reflect seasonal work (esp fire fighting).
Business owners who sell get their big exit cheques etc but these fall into insignificance vs the $1.5bn cash that FR paid the Dobbin family to sell CHC in 2007 which is likely the largest cheque anyone cut for anything in the helicopter industry outside of OEM M&A. Milestone getting bought by GE was not far off that for the founders either. The owner of Nova Capital got around $25m for selling his twin engine business to LCI and the former owner of Rotortrade got a good amount when he sold to THC as well. Can't think of any more big paydays off the top of my head.