The Red Sea Development Co. (TRSDC) has selected The Helicopter Co. (THC) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to provide a Leonardo AW139 helicopter, crew and maintenance technicians, and flight services for air ambulance and passenger transport. “We’re very pleased to award this contract to The Helicopter Company, the Kingdom's first commercial helicopter operator,” said TRSDC CEO John Pagano. “This will give us much-needed aerial support for our staff and construction workers over the vast and remote area of our site.”
Under the terms of the contract, THC will work with medical services provider International SOS–Al Rushaid (ISOS), which will provide medical crew and equipment from a shared base at TRSDC’s construction village near Umluj. THC will provide and maintain an Aerolite three-stretcher kit for the transport of up to three patients on stretchers and stowage of up to four oxygen bottles. The stretcher kit connects to the helicopter power supply and contains various electrical outlets to connect different types of medical devices.
At the peak of construction activity, TRSDC is expecting to have up to 30,000 workers in multiple locations over a 1,000-sq-km development area. The first phase of the development will open in 2022 and include 16 luxury hotels offering 3,000 rooms across five islands and two inland resorts. It will also include a marina, entertainment facilities, and an airport. Plans call for the facility to expand to 8,000 hotel rooms across 22 islands and six inland sites by 2030.
Launched in 2019, THC was established by the Public Investment Fund to meet the growing demand for luxury tourism and air travel services. The company recently signed an agreement to buy 10 Airbus H125 helicopters.