Corporate chopper clients get the VIP treatment

A PRIVATE helicopter charter company is expanding its fleet and diversifying operations to cater for high-end corporate clients while inviting smaller business and the general public to climb aboard.

For more than nine years, Azure Helicopters has serviced the private and corporate requirements of its owners, Azure Capital directors John Poyton and Geoff Rasmussen.

However, Messers Poyton and Rasmussen, who both have a long-held passion for aviation, and Azure Helicopters general manager Peter Morrison (pictured right) identified a hole in Western Australia's corporate market late last year.

Based near Rous Head in Fremantle, the company currently has one helicopter in its hangar: a Eurocopter AS 350 B2 Squirrel capable of transporting six people, including the pilot.

In the coming months, a new twin-engine EC 135 with the latest-generation avionics and room for seven people will arrive to increase capacity.

Mr Poyton and Mr Rasmussen brought in a new partner, former Jubilee Mines executive chairman Kerry Harmanis, to help fund this new aircraft and the air operator's certificate (AOC), which sanctions the commercial use of the aircraft.

Mr Morrison says other local players that purport to be doing VIP and corporate work didn't have the same door-to-door service offering as Azure.

"We want to offer it (our services) to organisations that want to put their CEOs and high-level staff members into something that's leather-clad and air-conditioned and has noise-cancelling headphones and that sort of capability," Mr Morrison told Business Class.

"One of the good things about our business is that we're not based at an airport or in a highly public area, so we're able to offer what we call a discrete corporate business."

Securing a long-term lease adjacent to Rous Head some time ago concurrently enhances privacy for clients and removes potential barriers to flying, including weather delays often experienced inland.

Mr Morrison says the general public can charter the Squirrel' for $2,000 per flying hour; and international rock stars will pay the same price.

"Geoff did a job some time ago for Sting and his family, for the Leeuwin concert," he says.