Six European Heliports to Establish North Sea Alliance for OWF Ops

The directors of the Aberdeen International Airport, Emden Airport, Esbjerg Airport, Humberside Airport, Avinor Stavanger Airport and Den Helder Airport have agreed at a two-day meeting in Den Helder to set up the North Sea Heliports Alliance (NSHA) in preparation for the upcoming roll-out of large-scale offshore wind farms in the North Sea.

According to the alliance members, the NSHA should become a platform for European offshore helicopter airfields through which the governments, energy companies, ports and industrial areas want to contribute to developing sustainable and safe helicopter services for the offshore wind market.

At the meeting in Den Helder, the six directors decided to hold the meetings each time at another airport. The founding meeting will be held in three months at Aberdeen International Airport. The alliance will be presented in September at the WindEurope 2018 exhibition in Hamburg.

Last year, Den Helder Airport introduced a hub-and-spoke infrastructure enabling multiple helicopter take-off and landing sites at various locations along the Dutch coast. The Airport said the implementation of these additional ‘helispots’ combined with a hub in Den Helder, stemed from the cost efficient demand for helicopter flights to North Sea offshore wind projects.