Copterline Returns to Tallinn-Helsinki Route
After a long silence and preparations kept well in secret, Copterline is set to begin flying between Talinn and Helsinki once again next week.
According to Kari Ljungberg, CEO of Copterline OÜ's Finnish parent company Line-Support, the necessary licenses, including a building permit for the Hernesaari heliport in Helsinki, have been cleared.
On July 29, the company entered an Agusta Westland 139 helicopter into the Finnish registry. "Indeed Line-Support will launch flights to Tallinn in the nearest future," Ljungberg told Suomen Kuvalehti.
The company cites the speed of the transfer, essential for its business-class target group, as its main advantage over competitors. The planned flight time between the two capitals is 18 minutes and the helicopter carries 13 passengers.
This is the third time that Copterline begins operating flights between Tallinn and Helsinki. Starting in 2000, its passenger numbers climbed to 75,000 by 2005. After a tragic accident in August 2005 which claimed the lives of all 14 passengers and crew on board due to a servo malfunction, the company closed the route. Another attempt to reopen in 2008 lost so much money for Copterline that the flights were discontinued after six months.
Erkki Sivonen