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A South West town has been dealt a huge blow after a helicopter firm announced it was scrapping flights, with the threat of redundancies.
British International Helicopters (BIH) announced that it was closing the domestic helicopter passenger route between Penzance and the Isles of Scilly from November this year.
The company said the decision was triggered by a legal challenge by Tesco over plans to build a Sainsbury's supermarket on the existing BIH site.
A BIH statement confirmed the closure of the heliport would "affect employees" and that workers had entered a formal redundancy consultation process.
Managing director Tony Jones said: "The route has run for 49 years so this is an extremely sad announcement for BIH, its employees and its customers - in fact the whole of west Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. Unfortunately we had no alternative."
The company said the decision to close the route was "finally triggered by legal action taken by Tesco and two private individuals". It said the legal challenges of the planning process prevented the firm from completing the sale of the land to Sainsbury's.
BIH has repeatedly stated publicly that the land needed to be sold in a reasonable timeframe to release the capital required to continue the service, at a different location.
Cornwall Councillor Andrew Wallis described the decision as "a kick in the teeth" for the two communities. He added: "To me, this is two supermarkets squabbling over a piece of land, and the communities of Penzance and the Isles of Scilly are the ones to miss out."
Andrew May, chairman of the Isles of Scilly Steamship Group, which runs the Scillonian ferry service between the mainland and the archipelago, said: "The helicopter has been a fixture of islands travel for almost 50 years and during that time our two companies have worked together in a spirit of friendly competition.
"Our focus now must be to work with the island community to ensure that we do our best to compensate for this loss of service. We hope this will reassure and help allay concerns that people may have."

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And what helicopter ? Already paid for AS332L ? Nice new AW139 ? S-92 ?

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I personally cannot wait for the financial demise of Tesco, they are not a considerate neighbour but an all too powerful bully that could not give a care for their continued negative impact on the quality of life for local folks. Dont expect them to care in this instance also.

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Isles of Scilly helicopter link is saved

12:32pm Tuesday 21st August 2012 in News

The future of Penzance’s helicopter links to the Isles of Scilly looks secure after Tesco announced it has withdrawn its opposition for a new British International Helicopters site in the town.

The supermarket giant had been pursuing a judicial review against the planning permission granted for the project.

The decision to withdraw the review has followed a commitment from British International Helicopters (BIH) to continue helicopter services between Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, if all legal challenges are dropped.

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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.

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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."

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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."

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