New observation helicopter in Iceland

A new observation helicopter landed at Reykjavík Airport on Tuesday. The helicopter is manufactured by Airbus and it is Norðurflug who bought the helicopter, the value of which is over 200 million ISK. The helicopter is comparable to a helicopter the company bought in 2018. “It’s a big investment for our company,” says Birgir Ómar Haraldsson, managing director of Norðurflug.

“These are the most popular helicopters in this size range and even helicopters in general. In the wilderness, it is important that the helicopter’s noise be kept low. These are quieter than all helicopters in their size range and are the only one used in the Grand Canyon, for example, in the United States. There is a lot of reflection of noise where the helicopters go down into the canyon,” he says stressing the importance of the low noise of this model.

Unique design

The helicopter is unique in many ways, with a larger passenger view than the average. “The passengers are absolutely delighted with the helicopter’s view,” says Haraldsson. The reason is that the design of the plane allowed the window to be much larger than in most helicopters. “The windows are wide around you and over you,” says the manager of Norðurflug. Given the helicopter’s size, the windows are a large percentage of its circumference.

It seems unique that the helicopter has three passengers seated at the front of the helicopter, two with the pilot, whereas the helicopter takes six passengers. All passengers sit in the helicopter’s flight direction, which makes the passenger’s experience even better.

This latest helicopter in the Icelandic fleet was purchased in South Africa, but prior Norðurflug purchased a similar model in Argentina.