Irish operator Premier Helicopters has stopped commercial operations after 14 years.  Founded in 1998, the local Commission for Aviation Regulation (CAR) website notes here “Premier Helicopters Ltd (Licence suspended effective from 10th January 2013)”.  Additionally, Premier’s principal aircxraft – AgustaWestland AW109E Power EI-MSG – is currently being advertised here by Mach Aviation Services on the AvBuyer website.

Looking further at the CAR website shows that the loss of Premier from the Irish scene leaves just five approved commercial operators, one of which has its principal operations in South Africa and we are not aware that it has started operations in Ireland as its website says is planned.  The remaining four are

* Bond – flying one EC135 for an offshore support contract
* CHC – flying the SAR contract, currently with S61s but moving to S92s
* Irish Helicopters – owned by British operator PDG and flying one EC135 on lighthouse support work plus AS350/AS355 brought in from UK for specific contracts
* Executive Helicopters – with one EC120 and one Bell 222.  The company also operates R22 and R44s

The fifth operator referred to above is Starlite Aviation, and while they have an Irish office, we are not aware of them having operations in country.

Jeremy Parkin – HeliHub.com