News / Sumburgh airport lifted by chopper grounding
THE GROUNDING of the Super Puma helicopters an aircraft ditched off Fair Isle two months ago has provided an unexpected boost to Sumburgh airport.
Last month saw an extraordinary 50 per cent increase in traffic at the airport compared to the same month last year, almost entirely accounted for by oil industry traffic.
While scheduled services rose by almost 20 per cent, there has been a tripling of the number of oil charter flights and refueling stops for helicopters, and other charter flights have gone up by more than 150 per cent.
Airport manager Nigel Flaws said there had been a general upturn in passengers on all scheduled flights with ship crew changes from largely oil related vessels in Lerwick harbour.
There has also been a big increase in oil charter work related to the growing developments west of Shetland, which he said was likely to continue over the next few years.
However one new area of business has come as a result of the new regulations brought in after the ditching of the Super Puma EC225 on 22 October 20 miles west of Fair Isle with 21 men on board.
As part of the new safety regime, choppers heading for the oil fields have to be checked more often, which means more land at Sumburgh for refueling on their way from Aberdeen to the rigs.
More oil workers are also being flown in to Sumburgh by fixed wing aircraft before taking off for work in a helicopter.
“We are absolutely delighted with the figures and we believe it will continue and certainly increase further,” Flaws said.
“There seems to be an awful lot of activity planned in the west of Shetland for the next few years and we think we are well placed to take advantage of that.”
Sumburgh has recorded the strongest growth figures for any of the HIAL Ltd airports during a month where many have done very well, including a 29 per cent rise at Wick largely caused by increased oil-related traffic.
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