Eurocopter UK is to build a major new helicopter service centre at Kirkhill Commercial Park in Dyce, Aberdeen. The centre will bring the most up to date helicopter support technology to one of the busiest off shore oil and gas helicopter maintenance hubs in the world.

The facility, which will be designed and built for Eurocopter UK by Knight Property Group, will be ideally placed to offer state of the art logistical and technical support and flight simulator training for the UK’s main heliport for the offshore oil industry. Home to major offshore helicopter operators Bristow Helicopters, Bond Offshore and CHC, Aberdeen is already a maintenance centre for 59 Super Puma/ EC255 family helicopters which fly an average of 85,000 hours per year in offshore missions, representing some of the most intensive helicopter traffic in the world.

The Eurocopter centre will comprise a 10,000 sq ft logistics warehouse and 5,000 sq ft of offices as well as 5,360 sq ft of flight simulator accommodation, which will house Eurocopter’s first UK-based EC225 Flight Training Simulator. Work at the site will begin with ground breaking in April, and it is expected that the facility will be completed by December 2009. The centre will occupy the 1.2 acre site four at Knight Property Group’s Kirkhill Commercial Park

Markus Steinke, Managing Director of Eurocopter UK commented: “The new state of the art Eurocopter facility in Aberdeen reinforces Eurocopter’s commitment to investing in the UK, and to bringing the best technical and logistical support to where our customers need it most. The Eurocopter Puma/ Super Puma/ EC255 helicopter family has proved very popular in the UK, both supporting the UK offshore oil and gas industry and in military missions, as a key part of the Royal Air Force helicopter fleet. The new Aberdeen facility we are building is the latest of a growing range of high quality support services which we provide to our UK customers, both civil and military.

We aim to have a network of local operations close to our customers throughout the UK. With our already strong presence in England, Wales and Ireland, we are pleased to be now making a further commitment to Scotland.”