The Strait of Gibraltar is a place of passage: 100,000 ships cross it every year. This represents 10% of world maritime traffic. Of these, a third part are the line ferries that link Europe with North Africa. However, not everything that crosses the Strait on a daily basis sails. In this strip of only 14 kilometers wide there are also commercial flights that connect the two continents. This is the case of Hélity, the only Spanish company and one of the few in the world that offer regular helicopter connections. With closed schedules and also ample flexibility to offer flights on demand, it links Ceuta with Algeciras and Malaga.
With little more than 18 square kilometers, surrounded by Morocco and the sea, Ceuta could not have an airport, as Melilla does. The physical limits of Ceuta made Aena build its first commercial heliport there to facilitate arrival and departure by air. Later, the airport manager replicated the formula in the port of Algeciras, so that in a flight of only seven minutes it is possible to join both sides of the Strait.
Hélity Copter Airlines has a fleet of four Leonardo AW139 helicopters for 15 passengers. They are devices that other operators fly in services to off-shore platforms and with which all kinds of aerial work can be carried out for public institutions or private companies. Some of these companies are now its clients, as the former Italian-British company Agusta-Westland, today called Leonardo, appointed Hélity as an official international maintenance center. That culminated one of the most ambitious projects of the company owned by Antonio Barranco. It also projects the supply of ships by air, so that they do not have to stop their journey during the crossing of the Strait, and also has in mind to open other helicopter lines in Gibraltar, Malaga and different cities in Morocco.
Among the notable business figures, at the last Farnborough Air Show last July, Hélity announced the intention to acquire five Lilium Jets, the first fully electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft to incorporate them into its fleet.
Lilium has a staff of about 800 people, about half of whom are aeronautical engineers, and its management body includes Tom Enders, who until 2019 was the top manager of Airbus and a recurring member of the Bilderberg Conferences.
Hélity follows in the footsteps of the Brazilian airline Azul, the British Bristow and the Norwegian AAP Aviation, which want to offer air taxi services in their countries with vertical take-off electric planes with up to seven seats plus the pilot. Spain is playing an important part in the development of this type of aircraft, as Lilium is carrying out all kinds of tests this summer with its fifth-generation technological demonstrator at the Atlas de Villacarrillo flight test center in Jaén.
Antonio Barranco tells La Vanguardia that the acquisition of this type of aircraft for his company will be the beginning of a revolution in the commercial aviation sector and for short-haul business flights. “We are entering a new aircraft profile: it will have zero operational emissions and a low noise level, so the Lilies will be a great addition to our fleet. They have a wide and spacious cabin, this will be highly appreciated by our future passengers and will be very attractive to serve a growing premium and business traffic in our region”, he concludes.
