End of the road to the Scillies

[revs&checks]

Unfortunately not the good news it appears to be, as the company are still waiting for the last person to remove their objection. Until that happens a judicial review is still required and the company are continuing with their plans to close the base from 1st Nov.

Breaking News: BIH To Continue Withdrawal Of Helicopters | Scilly Today

British international Helicopters have just issued a statement saying they intend to continue with their withdrawal from the Penzance to Scilly helicopter route.
This follows an announcement from Tesco earlier today that they would be dropping their judicial review into the planning permission for a Sainsbury’s superstore on the heliport site. Tesco said they had a letter of assurance from BIH that if all judicial reviews were dropped, they would commit to continue the helicopter service.
But this evening, BIH have said that between the 14th and 17th August it “became clear that the remaining legal challenge would not be removed within a suitably short timeframe despite great efforts by a number of people.”
They say that, as not all legal challenges have been removed, BIH, “have no alternative but to pursue another course of action. This course is to cease the passenger service from 1 November 2012.”
BIH say they have spent considerable time and money seeking to continue to maintain the route and they now have to focus on the future of the company without the route to the Isles of Scilly. BIH add they will continue to talk to other potential operators for the route.

[Anthony Supplebottom]

Will it keep going?

The former boss of a west Cornwall helicopter company is involved in talks to keep a service in the air, The Cornishman has learnt.

Terry Nelson was the Penzance-based chief executive of Scotia Helicopters, which was taken over by British International Helicopters (BIH) in 2000.

Although he wouldn't go into detail about his exact role, Mr Nelson confirmed he was using his expertise to help a helicopter service survive in west Cornwall.

He said: "I feel it is very sad that this has happened.

"When I left in 2000 it was a thriving business and is now almost 50 per cent of the business it was ten years ago. How can it go from that to what it is today?

"Mr Nelson refused to confirm if he was offering financial help as well as drawing on 25 years of personal knowledge of the Penzance-based flights. "I will do everything I can to help the islanders," he said.

BIH has announced that flights will stop for good on October 31 after a set of legal challenges delayed the sale of the heliport at Eastern Green to Sainsbury's.

From November 1, the helicopters currently in use on the service will be transferred to a hangar at Newquay airport where they will remain until they are sold.

With discussions into the future of flights continuing, and a legal challenge by former Isles of Scilly Steamship Company boss Charlie Cartwright still going ahead, the Government has leant its voice to a growing number hoping for a successful outcome.

Transport Minister Norman Baker said: "We understand that the operators of the ferry and plane services are considering what they can do to meet the demand for travel and that efforts are being made locally to explore whether other potential helicopter operators would be willing to provide services."

Ex-Scotia boss joins helicopter talks | This is Cornwall

[fagin's goat]

....it's the final countdown....two flying days to go for the Penzance boys.

[terminus mos]

Hurry up, plenty of work for those old reliable S-61s replacing so called new technology EC225s on the North Sea. Get them to Aberdeen!

[chopper2004]

ummm slight problem with that article, it was CHC which took over the Maxwell's Brintel and offshore side of Bond Helicopters in late 99 early 2000 to make CHC Scotia

Cheers

[espresso drinker]

All joking aside, what is likely to happen to the S-61's? Do they have much life left in them? Would they be viable purchase?

Will they end up going north?

Any rumours, gossip or speculation?

[Non Emmett]

I enjoyed New Year last year on Tresco though I'm still getting over the shock of what it all cost. They have just completed a multi million pound expansion which gives more selfcatering accommodation and the S-61 service direct to the island was a most convenient if expensive trip. I note Twin Otter flights from Lands End will cost typically Ł160 return in November and from Newquay Ł190.

What would a new helicopter service need to charge to be viable and what equipment might they use ? S-61s? Seems to me that with the Penzance heliport written out of the script it would take an age to get Cornwall Council to agree to an new site and sadly wherever any such venture sought to locate to would probably attract considerable nimbyism, not least from those who have only lived in Cornwall for a relatively short period.

I feel sorry for our Scillonian neighbours who have had the beneit of the chopper service for decades.

[Sanus]

If you do the maths it probably looks viable.

130,000 pax a year (BBC) @ Ł90 each (ave) = Ł11.7m. Throw in a couple of LG grants and development loans and you're generating well over Ł1m a month.

A couple of refurbished L1 Puma's wouldn't cost too much ....

[cockney steve]

OK Sanus....now take out the rent for a new pitch (they're selling their own, so a grasping landlord will want ~8% return on HIS capital.....then there's the local council screwing the place for Rates and other services....Oh, and as the presentoperator is so skint they don't have a "xitty" to pay for replacements for their end-of-life machines.....they obviously were short on the revenue-stream.

New heliport +new heli(s) = higher costs- = same throughput of pax/freight pay more per trip, OR they increase their load-factor sufficiently to make the op. self-funding.

Why do people think there's a magic money-tree which produces "Grants and Subsidies"....Commercial operation, should work on a self-funded basis.

[Non Emmett]

Reasonable points cockney steve- b.ut the islands have been able to spend teens of millions in recent times on a new school and according to scilly today six million pounds is available for "improvements to waste management" and a further six million plus could be for new energy from waste plant.

Big bucks for a population of 2200 me thinks but good luck to them. They seem to be comparing transport costs for similar sized Scottish islands and feel strongly they need some help. I suppose if you have had a good S-61 service for so many years albeit at a relatively high cost some might think, then its loss is going to hit islanders hard.

[Fareastdriver]

The Scottish Islands have transport subsidies but not for helicopters. They use ferries and for some reason although the seas have a similar level of difficulty they run all the year round; not just during the tourist season. The problem with the Scillies is their marine connections, not their airborne ones.

[luckyrat]

Last day at Penzance

Good luck to all at British International, on your last day at Penzance Heli port. I wish you all the very best...............

[helihub]

and of course not forgetting the families impacted by the 60 losing their jobs today

[POBJOY]

Penzance End of and Era !!!

Called in today and said cheerio to some of the guys that have given me a 'traffic service' whilst on aerial work in the area for the past 36 years.
Possibly the end of the aviation connection for Penzance since 1964, and with our winter weather a difficult service to replace.
However they can hold their heads up high as the service was second to none for decades,and only started to degrade as aircraft serviceability waned in recent times.
It will be strange to no longer see the 61 curving in out of the mist over the railway yards and getting the faint 'avtur' scent whilst going to B&Q or Halfords.
The last flight is due from SCY at 17.30 and then that machine will go to NQY,leaving no aircraft on site.
Plymouth in 2011, and now PZ HP 2012, not good for South West Aviation services.
There still may be a judicial review on the planning process that granted permission for a supermarket on the site.We wait with interest.

[A30yoyo]

End of Penzance-Scilly helicopter service

Here's a shot of the penultimate Scillies flight at Penzance at 1600 today....I just heard what I think was the last one heading out at 1700



The buildings already signless are due to come down in the next couple of weeks apparently

[POBJOY]

PZ HP RIP

Nice one A30; called in this evening to see the last rites performed on what deserves to be called a 'historic' aviation site.
As the base of what was probably the longest serving scheduled Helio service i was pleased that so many turned up to say goodbye to the staff (including former ones).
Perhaps Sainsbury will put a S61 fuse shell on the top of its s-mkt to remind everyone of how this site performed such a good service for decades.
RIP PZ HP walk tall into the future. PP

[A30yoyo]

Photo by (and uploaded for) POBJOY

[A30yoyo]

The clear-out was nearly finished today....the fire truck was shifted to Newquay


Heliport Fire Truck goes by A30yoyo, on Flickr


Heliport Tea Break by A30yoyo, on Flickr

[A30yoyo]

Fixed Wing developments Lands End Airport

New Tower and Terminal


Lands End Airport 1 by A30yoyo, on Flickr


Lands End Airport 2 by A30yoyo, on Flickr

[HeliHenri]

Life on a Scilly Isle without the comforting sound of a helicopter :

Life on a Scilly Isle without the comforting sound of a helicopter | This is Cornwall

The fact that a small Westcountry community of some 180 souls enjoyed its own dedicated helicopter service for almost three decades might seem a little fanciful in a region where some villages of that size fail to attract a single bus – but the regular flights have been the isle of Tresco's vital link to the outside world since 1983.

Now the high and happy days are over. The entire Scillonian archipelago lost its helicopter link at the end of October, but Tresco has been feeling the pain more than most.

Since British International Helicopters ceased flying out to the islands from Penzance, anyone visiting Tresco has had to either arrive by ship from the mainland, or fly in to St Mary's Airport aboard the Skybus fixed wing planes.

Either way, that's meant a boat ride on to the final destination – which the islanders of St Martins, Bryher and St Agnes and their visitors have been used to. But Tresco is run primarily as a tourist resort – and as such is a well oiled machine that has grown accustomed to welcoming its guests at its own heliport next door to the world famous gardens.

Now the heavenly acres of the beautiful isle shake to the deafening thrum of helicopter blades no more. All is quiet on the airy downs and dunes of Tresco's southern tip.

So how is the island coping with the loss? Some locals will, privately, tell you that it's similar to what many seaside resorts must have felt during the 1960s when Dr Beeching axed so many of the nation's regional train services – but Tresco Island Estate has been good at reinventing itself ever since Augustus Smith was appointed Lord Proprietor of the Scillies in 1834.

Smith was an innovator – and his direct descendent, Robert Dorrien Smith who runs the estate now, is made in the same mould – he has spent millions developing the island's tourist offering and his staff are used to adapting.

Mike Nelhams, curator of Tresco Abbey Garden, was also in charge of managing the island heliport until it was officially closed at the end of October, and he told the Western Morning News: "We've been waiting for the helicopter to close down for the last couple of years so we have been looking at all the other possibilities.

"Now we've developed a relationship with the Isles of Scilly Steamship Company (which operates Skybus) and we've got a system where, once you get to your chosen airport, we will look after you and your bags.

"We pick visitors up from St Mary's Airport, take them down to the quay where we will have staff to meet them and get them aboard the jet-boat to Tresco – in other words it's a seamless journey.

"Very few jobs went – if people wanted to stay, other jobs were available," he commented on the heliport's closure. "But some went to work at other airports because they were professionals."

Alasdair Moore is in charge of Tresco's marketing, and he told me: "There's obviously a sense of loss, but at the same time it certainly didn't come out of the blue. Recently part of the experience of coming to Tresco has been clouded by this are they, or aren't they, question.

"That led to a lot of unease in this community and also for our visitors – it was a vacuum and gossip and surmise fills it. But this is where we are now and we can make it work.

"I've had time-share people come up to me purely making the point about how well the new transport arrangements have gone. They'd been concerned about the change, but they'd been delighted by what had been put in place – and they really liked the jet-boat journey. It adds to the sense of being on an island.

"For the people who live here – well, the other off-islands have always had this as the standard way of travelling.

"One cannot argue that the helicopter didn't fly in very strong winds, because it did," he added, referring to the fact that the Skybus planes cannot fly to the islands in gale conditions.

"But the thing to be remembered is that last year there were more days cancelled on the helicopter than on Skybus – there were growing problems with it going 'technical'.

"Anyway, we all experience appalling weather – even on the mainland," shrugged Mr Moore. "Much of the transport network was inoperable last week – and we're 28 miles out into the ocean. We have to expect there will be times when things are difficult – but we have not had a dip in bookings because the helicopter has gone."