Luxaviation Helicopters has acquired UK-based VIP and charter helicopter operator Starspeed, doubling the size of its business overnight to create what the Luxembourg-based company’s CEO Charlotte Pedersen calls “the world’s largest VIP/VVIP operator” of helicopters.
Fairoaks Airport-based Starspeed has 19 helicopters on its air operator certificate (AOC), all of which it operates and manages for private clients. For charter flights, it also has access to four helicopters not on its AOC. Luxaviation Helicopters has 19 helicopters as well, all managed for private clients and operated under its AOC, but four are also available for VIP charters. In addition, Luxaviation Helicopters has a partnership with Azur Hélicoptère that offers Luxaviation Helicopters charter access to the Cannes-based company’s fleet of 21 helicopters.
Starspeed brings an “outstanding reputation and [the] highest safety standards,” according to Pedersen, so it will retain its identity, management and staff. However, Starspeed will use Luxaviation Helicopters’s back-office functions and will benefit from the access it gains to the clients of all of Luxaviation Group’s companies, which together operate more than 250 business aircraft and helicopters.
Pedersen says Starspeed’s key attractions for Luxaviation Helicopters were its 40-year history as “a highly professional, highly confidential, highly trusted” VIP operator; its helicopter pilot-training business; Starspeed’s global reach; and its status as the only VIP helicopter operator approved by EASA “with commercial rights to charter to ships.”
Luxaviation Helicopters acquired UK-based charter helicopter operator Starspeed last month in what Luxaviation Helicopters CEO Charlotte Pedersen describes as an ideal growth move.
Starspeed’s fleet of 19 managed helicopters, which it operates under its own AOC, plus four more not on its AOC but available to Starspeed for corporate and VIP charter work, doubles Luxaviation Helicopters’ roster of managed rotorcraft. Luxaviation Helicopters manages and operates 19 helicopters for private owners, and most of them are available to it for charter flying. Starspeed will remain separately managed, staffed and branded under its new owner, but together the two companies represent “the world’s largest VIP helicopter operator,” according to Pedersen.
Starspeed brings Luxaviation Helicopters other attributes that will help both entities expand business as part of parent Luxaviation Group, according to Pedersen. One is Starspeed’s helicopter pilot-training business, which she said complements Luxaviation Group’sfixed-wing business aircraft management and training activities. (Luxaviation Group, which manages 262 aircraft and operates 25 FBOs and 15 maintenance facilities, counts itself as the world’s second-largest operator of business aircraft.) Starspeed’s training activities will allow Luxaviation Group to offer private customers who own both fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft high-quality pilot training for both, she said.
Additionally, the fact that Starspeed and Luxaviation Helicopters operate worldwide might win them future VIP business from the group’s fixed-wing customers, said Pedersen: “There is a clear connection between large business jets and large helicopters. [VIPs] want to go fast and conveniently.”
Another attribute is that Starspeed, which owns two helicopter simulators, not only offers training for operating to ships and offshore oil platforms but also is the only private helicopter operator specifically approved by EASA to fly charters to ships. This could entice business from companies that manage super-yachts for private customers, Pedersen thinks.
Starspeed also adds to Luxaviation Helicopters’ growing charter presence in large helicopters, as a 19-seat Sikorsky S-92 is available to it. Luxaviation Helicopters itself has Leonardo AW139s, AW119s, an A109 and a Bell 430 available for charters, while both companies offer EC155s. Regarding helicopter size, “This brings us more in the region I’m targeting,” said Pedersen.