New check-in desks complete
For the first time today, the new check-in desks at Den Helder Airport were opened to the travelling public. It proved necessary to enlarge the check-in section to meet the demands of the operators based at the airport.
“Our focus is on maintaining our current levels of service. Several of our helicopter spots were recently renovated, and we are now working on expanding capacity to process the increased number of passengers, on time,” explained Conny van den Hoff, director of Den Helder Airport.
Over the past five years, the number of passengers has risen by 22 percent to 147,000 per year. The majority of passengers are offshore personnel who travel by helicopter on a daily basis to and from the approximately 135 gas, oil and service platforms out at sea. The next prospective market for both Den Helder Airport and the Port of Den Helder is maintenance work on offshore windfarms.
To ensure that check-in times are kept to a minimum now and in the future, the decision was taken to base our investments on the expected growth in passenger numbers. Van den Hoff continued, “The desk staff will now be able to continue to offer the personnel of our customers rapid and good-quality service, in line with our organisation’s mission.”
Ambitions
Earlier this year, Den Helder Airport announced its ambition to tap into new markets. There are for example opportunities in facilitating scheduled flights and charter flights (maximum capacity 30-50 passengers) for transporting offshore personnel from the Netherlands and abroad direct from and to Den Helder. The focus will be placed on direct scheduled flights between Aberdeen in the UK and Esbjerg in Denmark. Thanks to the ideal location in respect of the Southern North Sea, in close cooperation with the marine and offshore specialist Port of Den Helder, Den Helder Airport also aims to concentrate on helicopter transport for maintenance personnel to the growing number of windfarms in the North Sea.
Largest offshore heliport
Every year there are some 23,000 flight movements at Den Helder Airport. This equates to between forty and fifty flights per day, mainly to the 135 oil, gas and service platforms in the Dutch section of the North Sea. At present, on average 140,000 passengers, mainly offshore personnel, pass through the check-in desks at Den Helder Airport each year, making the airport one of the largest offshore heliports in Northwestern Europe.