There are thousands of airlines around the world, and all of them fly aircraft. But not all of them fly airplanes. Enter Helijet, one of only 13 or so helicopter-based airlines that offer scheduled passenger service. The Vancouver, British Columbia-based carrier has been operating since 1986, and like many smaller regional outfits also offers charters and critical medevac services.
Helijet’s scheduled service network is small, serving only four total destinations. Vancouver Harbour is their main hub, with flights to Nanaimo and Victoria. A limited number of flights also serve a base at Vancouver YVR.
With a gorgeous spring day ahead of me, I decided to book a one-way flight from Vancouver Harbour to Victoria. It’s a core Helijet route, with hourly service ‘from 7 to 7’ on most weekdays. Tickets are typically very expensive, with full fare prices reaching $493CAD each way months in advance. Even sale fares go for a whopping $399. But if you’re lucky, ultra-saver basic economy-type fares can go for as low as $179 — especially on weekends.
You might wonder why the flights are so expensive when Helijet faces stiff competition from the excellent ferry system and neighboring seaplane operator Harbour Air. The first is speed. The helicopter makes the crossing faster than the ferry at 30 minutes versus a few hours. The other is weather. The seaplane might be about as fast, but if it’s foggy or the winds are high or it’s too dark, the planes aren’t going anywhere. Helijet, however, is still operating as scheduled.
Lucky for me weather wasn’t going to be a factor, and neither was price. A last-minute check revealed an ultra-saver fare on the first flight of the day (Sunday, 8am) to Victoria. I snapped it up immediately.
Getting to the heliport the next morning was an adventure, as there are only two access points: an out of the way road and a pedestrian bridge. I chose the latter for the nice walk from my hotel, only to realize far too late that the bridge is part of a Vancouver Metro station. The system doesn’t open until 7:30am, and thus neither did the bridge. With a strict check-in cutoff time of 7:40am, walking the extra mile-and-a-half via road wasn’t gonna happen. Luckily I caught a cab and a series of lucky breaks and checked in without issue at 7:50am.
The outside of the heliport building doesn’t look like much, but the inside is well appointed. Floor to ceiling windows provide a good view of the landing pads and harbor. Comfortable lounge-style seats abound.
Tea, coffee, and light snacks including soups and fresh cookies are complimentary for all passengers. Beer and wine are added to the mix in the afternoons. Work stations are available too, if you need some quiet time to finish up that slide deck or take one last meeting in private.
Plus, if you’re traveling on a roundtrip, you can leave a vehicle in their lot for up to a week for no charge (!!!), which is wild if you’ve familiar with the price to park in downtown Vancouver.
Unfortunately I was so behind I didn’t get to soak it in, which had absolutely been my original plan. Instead I raided the catering like I was in one of those cash grab money-blowing machines, stuffing cookies and a few bottles of juice into my pockets as fast as I could before time ran out.
Boarding began a little early, and all four us followed the co-pilot out to today’s ride: a 12-seat Sikorsky S-76.
The interior is arranged with only three rows of four seats each. The pitch is tight, and thanks to the bench style seating, so is the width. With such a low load, however, everyone had a window seat and an empty next to them. As you can probably guess, there’s zero space for cabin baggage. Everything is put into the hold, from roller bags to purses.
Each seat comes with ear plugs and a four-point seatbelt/harness, the first time I’ve used one on a scheduled flight.
If you’ve never been in a helicopter before, it can be a weird experience the first few times. It rattles and vibrates in ways that fixed wing aircraft don’t. It’s loud, thanks to the very large turboshaft engines and gear box just a few feet above your head. There’s no wings, anywhere, giving a visual reference to what’s keeping you aloft. And of course helicopters can move in ways that, if attempted in an airplane, would result in a very bad day for all involved.
But thankfully commercial helicopter operations have a good safety record, and all the eccentricities of the helicopter — which I still assert makes no sense from a physics standpoint — are perfectly normal.
The Sikorsky’s two turbine engines had a smooth start up, followed by a wheeled taxi out to a departure pad a few dozen feet away. With a little adjustment to the ‘collective’ (how pilots control thrust on a chopper), the bird leapt off the pad and rapidly climbed over the harbor to a cruising altitude of 4,000 feet.
With the chopper’s absolutely enormous windows the views are incredible, which is great because that’s all there is to do. There’s nothing else on board, PaxEx-wise. Twenty-five minutes later we were descending into Victoria, and five minutes after that we were on the ground.
Normally this would be the end of the experience, but that’s not the case here. Helijet also offers complimentary shuttle service to a number of downtown locations. As the only passenger using the service, they dropped me right at the front door of my final destination.
Helijet tickets are pricey, and the onboard experience is fun but nonetheless pretty spartan. Their ground game, though, is fantastic, ranking among the most generous and equitable I’ve ever seen.
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All images credited to Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren
