Heli-taxi soon to offer “door-to-door” service – Serbia still waiting for major development of helicopter transport

Can one get from Zlatibor to Belgrade in an hour? Of course! This is not another one of the pre-election promises that “it will take 120 minutes by road to the Serbian mountain”. As we've seen, this will have to wait for another two years. No, this is about helicopter transport.

“Who travels by helicopter in Serbia?”, you might ask, understandably. Most people still associate the word with army helicopters and security measures during visits by high foreign officials (or with transporting turbo-folk stars directly to the stage, in one infamous instance).

But, did you know that heli-taxi transport was being developed in Serbia?

The Civil Aviation Directorate issued the first certificate for performing public transport services by helicopter to the company Balkan Helicopters in August 2016, making this type of transport more accessible to a wider public and not just to state structures. However, the public still primarily focuses on helicopters during events such as the floods of 2014, or emergency patient transport. They are now in focus once again, as the state has announced the procurement of new helicopters for the needs of the military and the police, which will also be used for civilian purposes. Furthermore, the news broke recently that the Moma Stanojlovic Institute will act as the regional center for the maintenance of Airbus helicopters.

Where, then, is Serbia when it comes to helicopter transport?

Heli-taxi arriving

Although there are many business people among the clients, Balkan Helicopters, still the only company registered for public air transport by helicopter in Serbia, say for our portal that there are also plenty of tourists and ordinary people who want to surprise their closest one on birthdays, anniversaries, engagements...

– Since we obtained the certificate, we've transported over 1,500 passengers – they say.

The company only offers panoramic flights for now, and they will soon start providing heli-taxi services – “quick, comfortable and safe door-to-door transport by helicopter”, as they say on their website.

The Civil Aviation Directorate clarifies for eKapija that, in order for an operator to carry out public air transport encompassing air-taxis, it needs to obtain an air operator's certificate (AOC) and operating permits issued by the Directorate. If an operator only has an AOC, as is the case with Balkan Helicopters, it can only offer panoramic air service, that is, flights beginning and ending at the same airport or operating spot. To carry out flights between two airports or operating spots, which is only available to the police and the military for now, they also need the Operating Permit, and Balkan Helicopters is in the process of obtaining one.

– Compared to airplane transport, helicopter transport in Serbia is less developed. Aside from Balkan Helicopters, the only company to offer public air transport by helicopter, and then only panoramic flights, there are only a few operators performing special activities in air transport by helicopter. This entails surveying from air, calibration, services in agriculture and forestry and similar activities – the Directorate says.

In order to obtain an AOC, the operator needs to have at least one helicopter (owned or leased). Balkan Helicopters has 4 Robinson helicopters in its fleet at the moment. The Directorate says for our portal that, since the issuing of the first certificate, there have been no new requests for carrying out public air transport by helicopter.

As Balkan Helicopters says, heli-taxi services are quite developed in other countries, and this kind of transport may also be important in Serbia as well, due to the ground configuration and bad roads. As they add, the obtaining of the Operating Permit and the official beginning of heli-taxi operations is only a matter of time.

Infrastructure important as well, in addition to aircraft

If, however, we put aside flying for prestige, panoramic viewing, leisure and time-saving, we need a large number of helicopters to transport injured people or people facing immediate danger. In the world, special teams are formed for this purpose. The number of helicopters entered in the Aircraft Register of the Republic of Serbia is far lower than the number of registered planes, as seen from the Directorate's data. By the end of this year, however, the number will increase by at least two aircraft.

The ministries of defense and internal affairs, signed an agreement with Airbus Helicopters on the procurement of nine H-145M helicopters for the needs of the police and the military back in late 2016, and the first two, as confirmed recently, will arrive by the end of the year. These aircraft will enable the Serbian Armed Forces' Air Defense and the helicopter unit of the Serbian police forces to carry out the most demanding missions – transport, search and rescue, combat, medical evacuation, supervision and surveillance...

A discussion about the amount and the conditions of helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) and search and rescue (SAR) operations in the region took place at one of the panels at the Southeast Europe Aviation Summit, held in early March in Belgrade.

Nenad Nedic, representative of the police helicopter unit, said at the event that, although they do perform such activities per need, helicopter HEMS operations in Serbia belong to commercial activities and emphasized that the problem was that they are a state body, not a business entity.

To perform these operations, several requirements need to be met.

– First, you need to own a helicopter meeting the requirements for performing HEMS operations, that is, fully equipped to allow the patient to be transported to the hospital safely, and the staff demands are high as well. However, the problem is that there's only one heliport in Serbia equipped to handle such passengers, the one at the Military-Medical Academy. This means that, even if we do meet all the requirements, the problem of the lack of heliports remains, which is why we have to work on enhancing the take-off and landing spots in order to adhere to the “golden hour” regulations.

In order to adhere to this procedure, that is, to have the injured person transported to the nearest hospital within 30 minutes, Nedic pointed out, investments need to be made in infrastructure in at least 5-6 cities first, and, in addition to Belgrade, there has been mention of Novi Sad, Nis, Bor and Cacak as potential helicopter bases.

Heliport (not) always necessary

Unlike rescue and medical transport, the flights Balkan Helicopters intends to perform do not necessarily require heliports, because, as they say, “in principle, a helicopter can land anywhere”.

According to the Civil Aviation Directorate, 3 heliport operators have valid authorization for using heliports in Serbia at the moment (BD Agro Dobanovci, Ciklonizacija Novi Sad and Lotika Mokra Gora).

Let us remind that, six years ago, the Directorate started an initiative for all municipalities in Serbia to get helicopter areas and that, of the 130 local self-governments invited to open and register a heliport, 47 offered locations. The project, however, stopped there.

When asked why this project stopped, the Directorate says that authorized persons inspected all the offered locations and submitted opinions and reports on the detected flaws, to the local self-governments, but that no feedback followed.

– In a small number of cases, local self-governments were issued one-year permits for helicopter areas, but no requests for permit renewal were submitted after the expiration of this period – the Directorate points out.

They add for our portal that they support the renewal of this initiative and that they will provide full support to the activities towards its realization in line with their authorization.

EU funds to help increase fleet as well

The development of civilian helicopter transport in Serbia, as pointed out at the said panel, will also lead to a quicker connecting of not just the region, but Europe as well, and as Croatia and Slovenia did before it, Serbia has an opportunity to get to new equipment and helicopters for efficient HEMS and SAR operations though EU funds as well.

An expensive “toy”?

Although helicopter transport is becoming more available to citizens, the rent price, all things considered, will be dictated by the number of those able to use these services. Balkan Helicopters offers flights at 33 to over 600 euros, depending on the type of service, the number of passengers and the flight duration.

Ivana Bezarevic

Direktorat civilnog vazduhoplovstva Srbije

Balkan helicopters Surčin

Ministarstvo odbrane Republike Srbije

Vazduhoplovni zavod Moma Stanojlović Beograd

Ministarstvo unutrašnjih poslova Republike Srbije

Vojska Srbije

BD Agro a.d. Dobanovci

Ciklonizacija a.d. Novi Sad

Lotika d.o.o Užice

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Aircraft Register of the Republic of Serbia

Ministry of Internal Affairs of Serbia

H 145M helicopter

police helicopter unit

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SAR operations

Search and Rescue

Southeast Europe Aviation Summit Belgrade 2018

Nenad Nedic

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