Helicopter charter Orkney

How does helicopter charter work in Orkney?

Helicopter charter Orkney starts with the same four facts as anywhere in the UK: your date, your route, how many people are travelling and what each weighs. We match the aircraft, book the landing and give you one fully inclusive quote. Charter-A Helicopter is the helicopter charter service of Charter-A Ltd, which has arranged private flights across the UK and Europe since 2011.

Kirkwall Airport is the site we plan around. It is a prior-permission airfield with a 1,424 metre runway, and its published hours are weekday and Saturday daytime with shorter Sunday hours. Fuel is only available during those hours, so a charter has to fit the opening times or an extension has to be agreed in advance. Customs and immigration are by arrangement, which matters if you are arriving from abroad. A handling agent on the airfield looks after the aircraft, and we deal with them for you.

Because the islands have no road link to the mainland, the realistic alternatives to flying are the ferry and the scheduled aeroplane. A charter helicopter works to your timetable instead of theirs, which is the whole point for a small group with a tight day.

From Kirkwall to the mainland: the real times

Our route data gives three straight comparisons from Kirkwall. Edinburgh is about 80 to 100 minutes by helicopter, Glasgow about 85 to 105 minutes and Newcastle about 105 to 130 minutes. There is no road figure to set against them, because the water is in the way. For a feel of how that compares with the road in the north of Scotland, Caithness sits only 30.5 nautical miles away at Wick, and the drive from Wick to Edinburgh is more than five hours.

Those are block times, calculated at 135 knots plus eight minutes, shown as a range. Orkney weather changes quickly, and a headwind on the way home can add to the upper figure. We check the forecast for both ends the day before and again on the morning. If the flight is cancelled because of the weather, you pay nothing.

If your onward journey is a jet or a longer trip south, see Charter-Private-Jet.com, and for an Edinburgh arrival see helicopter charter Edinburgh.

Who flies to Orkney and why

Orkney has a working economy built on energy, fishing, farming and the sea, and most charters follow it. The European Marine Energy Centre at Stromness tests wave and tidal machines, and the Flotta oil terminal and the wider energy supply chain bring engineers and managers who need to reach a site and get back. Our business helicopter charter page explains how those days are planned, and same-day business trips covers the there-and-back pattern.

Orkney is also a place people want to see for its history, from Scapa Flow to the standing stones at the Ring of Brodgar and St Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall. We only fly corporate and business groups, so if you are bringing clients, directors or a project team to Orkney, tell us the sites you need and we plan around them. Any landing at an estate, hotel or private site is subject to landing permission and site suitability, and we agree it before you commit.

Planning around the hours and the weather

The most useful thing to know about Kirkwall is that the airfield closes in the evening, earlier on a Saturday. A day trip from the mainland therefore works best with an early outbound leg and a return that lands back before the published closing time. If you need to stay later, we ask for an extension, and we confirm it before you rely on it.

Arrive 10 minutes before departure, keep luggage to soft bags because the hold is small, and give us the weight of every passenger and bag. The wind in the north is the usual limiting factor, so we plan a margin on the return and keep an alternative site in mind. The Scottish airfield directory lists every site we use, and the Scotland region page puts Orkney in the national picture. For a car at either end, Executive Global Travel can meet you.