Story ID: 
Huge Brazilian Helicenter Is Only the Beginning
By: Curt Epstein
Caption: HBR plans eventually to open nine helicenters in Eastern Brazil.
Word Count: 234
Less than a year after it opened the world’s largest full-service helicenter in São Paulo, Brazilian firm HBR has its sights set on expansion in more locations. The company’s first helicopter base occupies 14.5 acres, and its 107,600-sq-ft storage hangar can shelter up to 150 rotorcraft. The four-acre ramp has 19 pads for simultaneous operations, with a central 560-foot-long taxiway. The facility offers a luxurious passenger lounge, seven A/V-equipped conference rooms, a restaurant, coffee bar and terrace overlooking the property. A separate 37,000-sq-ft pilots’ building features weather monitoring, computers and free Wi-Fi, cable television, a simulator room, gym, locker room with showers and sauna, snooze room and meeting rooms.

As a maintenance provider, the company holds certification from Brazil’s ANAC on models from AgustaWestland, Airbus Helicopters, Bell and Robinson, and its 64,000-sq-ft maintenance hangar can handle 50 helicopters at once.

The Air BP-branded facility is the first in what the company expects will be a chain of nine helicenters in Eastern Brazil. It has purchased nearly 2,000 acres northeast of Rio de Janeiro and expects to break ground soon on an even larger facility with accompanying village to serve the country’s offshore oil-and-gas exploration industry. A separate Rio facility that is now under construction will support the private and on-demand helicopter traffic to the city. Other targeted locations are Goiania, Belo Horizonte, Salvador, Recife, Fortaleza and Florianopolis.