Gama Aviation Plc has entered into an agreement with Cotswold Helicopter Centre to offer training courses to new helicopter pilots at its rotary base in Fairoaks, Surrey, UK.
The joint venture will start operating with one helicopter, a Guimbal Cabri G2, with access to the rest of Cotswold’s fleet as required. Gama Aviation will be responsible for all aspects of safety management, compliance monitoring systems and will provide the facility, while Cotswold will focus on training, sales and marketing.
Steve Wright, director at Gama Aviation, commented, “Fairoaks has always been a favorably positioned, helicopter friendly base and I’m pleased that we are able to bring Cotswold to our historical home. This announcement follows an increase in our helicopter capability at Fairoaks as we aim to build it into a center of excellence for the group. The addition of training perfectly complements our existing maintenance, avionics and hangarage services.”
Oliver Heynes, director at Cotswold Helicopter Centre, added, “We are very excited to form this venture with Gama Aviation. Its great facilities at Fairoaks give us great access to the prime London catchment area. We have experienced a period of very rapid growth recently, and Gama Aviation’s great expertise in the areas of safety management will help us develop our existing systems as the business grows. In return our involvement gives Gama Aviation a turnkey solution to operate helicopters that may be owned by its business jet management clients.”
