Altitude Air, recently registered charter helicopter operator of Nepal in the final stage of on procurement of factory made Airbus AS 350 B3e series rotor aircraft, single-engine light helicopter manufactured by the by Airbus Helicopter in its fleet.
Officials’ from Altitude Air notified Aviation Nepal that an AS 350 B3e is planned to be introduced by the first week of September this year and will operate within Nepal for commercial flight purpose. Currently, the aircraft is in Singapore and is planned to arrive Nepal as a ferry flight from Singapore to Kathmandu Airport. The rotor aircraft is the new version AS 350 B3e and has full glass integrated cockpit.
Altitude Air currently conducts its flight operation with an Airbus AS 350 B3e helicopter which was added September 19 last year. The helicopter is seen with its temporary registration ‘F-WTCE’ at its Airbus hangar facility at Singapore. The company had also planned to add Koala series helicopter after the success of the second AS 350 B3e in its fleet as it has successfully conducted demonstration flight.
As seen in Nepal, that helicopter companies have been a boon to our country and it can be also seen that there has been a trend of adding fleet in the helicopter operators in Nepal. Currently, nine Hheli-charter companies Air Dynasty, Simrik Air, Altitude Air, Fishtail Air, Manang Air, Mountain Helicopters, Shree Airlines, Prabhu Helicopters and Muktinath Airlines and Heli-Everest is soon to join.
The AS 350 B3e is powered by a Turbomeca Arriel 2B turboshaft engine and is well known for its capacity to fly at the high altitude about (23,000 feet AMSL) all over the world. The chopper has also proved its capability in Nepal especially in mountain regions. It has the capacity of 6 seaters excluding pilot and performs flawlessly in Aerial Sightseeing, Mountain Flights, Rescue Evacuation, Corporate Charter, Sling Operations, High altitude operations and other special adventure missions.
