Philjets Group said it will acquire two helicopters from Airbus Helicopters Southeast Asia.
The company placed a new order for two additional H130 in September from the subsidiary of Airbus Group.
PhilJets said H130 was a lightweight helicopter tailored for passenger transportation, sightseeing, aerial survey and medical airlift.
These helicopters will be operated by PhilJets Aero Charter Corp., the group’s air transport subsidiary.
PhilJets said with the new acquisitions, it would strengthen its fleet size to reach seven helicopters.
PhilJets said the investment reflected its confidence in the continuing growth of the Philippine helicopter market and aimed to develop new regional offices in Davao and Cebu to respond to the increasing flying demand in these areas.
PhilJets said with five Airbus Helicopters under its fleet and the upcoming deliveries of two additional H130, it was positioning itself as a solid player looking at long-term growth and signaled its willingness to be a reference in terms of fleet management and charter company in the Philippines.
“While we started from scratch, then acquired a company that we had to turn around and grow step by step, we are happy to have been able to add strong experienced aviation professionals that came back from overseas [Angola, Singapore, Thailand for example] to the team,” Thierry Tea, chief executive and founder of PhilJets, said.
“It took three years to build a solid team mixed with 10 percent French and 90 percent Filipino. The results are here and it’s encouraging. We are enthusiastic to continue to fly to further reach,” he said.
The company recently teamed up with Grab to offer an air taxi service to provide an alternate solution to the heavy traffic in Metro Manila.
PhilJets operates helicopter tours to and around different destinations including Tagaytay and Taal Lake, Mount Pinatubo, Palawan, Boracay, Corregidor, Manila Bay, Banaue and Sagada, as well as Bohol and Davao.
PhilJets flies around 22 hours a month and transports over 1,500 passengers. Its fleet includes new Airbus Helicopters AS350B2 and H130.