Sri Lanka Air Force Helitours Air Service Launched under Discover Serendipity Theme

19th July 2010, www.island.lk, By Dasun Edirisinghe

Sri Lanka Air Force will re-launch its domestic air service ‘Helitours’ today (19) at No. 395, Galle Road, Colombo 03 (Colpetty).

Helitours flies under the theme "Discover Serendipity" rebranded with a new-look and state-of-the-art office in the city.

"State-of-the- art office space is not the only new feature of Helitours. For the first time in domestic aviation history, helicopters will be used to introduce scheduled flights, creating another milestone for the SLAF," said Group Captain Janaka Nanayakkara, the SLAF spokesman.

He told The Island Financial Review that the move is aimed at catering to the growing demand and the convenience of the clientele, while simultaneously taking domestic air travel to new heights.

He said that the Helitours fleet boasts of more than twenty fixed wing aircraft and helicopters including Bell-206, also known as the Jet Ranger, Bell- 212, Bell- 412 and Mi-17.

The seating capacity of the Jet Ranger is 04 while the Bell- 212 and Bell- 412 can accommodate 08 persons, Nanayakkara said adding the Mi-17 being the largest helicopter in the Helitours fleet has seating capacity of 20.

The SLAF owned aircrafts AN 32 B and Y-12 are also use for Helitorus and the aircrafts have 45 and 15 seating capacity respectively.

Nanayakkara said: Since the dawn of peace, Helitours has expanded their services, bringing new destination routes under its wings. Scheduled flights to three new routes of Batticaloa, Ampara and Anuradhapura operate from Ratmalana Air Force base every Tuesday. In addition, Helitours continues to fly to Palaly on Monday, Wednesday and Friday while the flights to China Bay in Trincomalee are on Monday and Friday.

He said that their aim is to offer an aircraft for the general public at lowest cost and all revenues would go to the Treasury.

Helitours offers both scheduled flights and chartered flights to and from any part of Sri Lanka including city to airport transfers since its inception in 1972. The brainchild of Air Marshal Paddy Mendis, Helitours was incorporated as a strategic business unit of SLAF to meet the needs of aviation and tourism in Sri Lanka.

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