Tresco Heliport | |||||||||||
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Summary | |||||||||||
Airport type | Public | ||||||||||
Operator | Tresco Estates | ||||||||||
Location | Tresco, Isles of Scilly | ||||||||||
Elevation AMSL | 20 ft / 6 m | ||||||||||
Coordinates | 49°56′44″N006°19′53″W / 49.94556°N 6.33139°W | ||||||||||
Map | |||||||||||
Helipads | |||||||||||
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Tresco Heliport( ICAO : EGHT) is a heliport located on the island of Tresco, in the Isles of Scilly off the southwest coast of the United Kingdom. [2] The heliport was served by a scheduled helicopter service from 1983 to 2012, and since 2020 a new scheduled service now operates from the new Penzance Heliport. [3] [4] Currently, Tresco Heliport offers a landing site for private and charter helicopters by private arrangement. [5]
Tresco Heliport had a CAA Ordinary Licence (Number P677) that allowed flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction as authorised by the licensee. The aerodrome was not licensed for night use. [6]
The heliport was owned and operated by Tresco Estate, who lease the island from the Duchy of Cornwall. Tresco Heliport was opened by John King, Baron King of Wartnaby, Chairman of British Airways, on 26 April 1983.
Tresco's principal industry is tourism, and the heliport supported this by enabling a scheduled helicopter service to and from the mainland. This scheduled service came to an end in 2012.
On summer weekdays the heliport received up to six flights a day from Penzance Heliport on the mainland, with two services a day in winter. Passengers were conveyed from the heliport to their resort or destination on a passenger carrying trailer drawn by a farm tractor. [7] A footpath from one of the main landing beaches, at Carn Near, to the Abbey Gardens crosses the heliport landing field; [8] it was closed by warning lights and bells a few minutes before a helicopter was due to land at the heliport, and opened again after the helicopter had taken off.
The heliport was officially closed on 31 October 2012 and all commercial flights ceased operations. Private and charter helicopter flights to Tresco are still welcomed by the owner, by prior arrangement.
In 2016, plans were announced for a new helicopter service between a new Penzance Heliport and the Isles of Scilly.
The service launched in March 2020 [9] and flights now operate into both St Mary's Airport and Tresco Heliport under the name of Penzance Helicopters, operated by Sloane Helicopters. [10]
Airlines | Destinations |
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Starspeed | Penzance [11] [12] |
Tresco is the second-biggest island of the Isles of Scilly. It is 297 ha (1.15 sq mi) in area, measuring about 3.5 km (2.2 mi) by 1.75 km (1.09 mi).
St Mary's is the largest and most populous island of the Isles of Scilly, an archipelago off the southwest coast of Cornwall in England, United Kingdom.
Hugh Town is the largest settlement on the Isles of Scilly and its administrative centre. The town is situated on the island of St Mary's, the largest and most populous island in the archipelago, and is located on a narrow isthmus which joins the peninsula known as the Garrison with the rest of the island.
Isles of Scilly Skybus is a British airline which operates year-round scheduled services to the Isles of Scilly from Land's End Airport and Newquay Airport in Cornwall, and seasonal scheduled services from Exeter. Their head office is located in the Isles of Scilly Travel Centre in Penzance, Cornwall.
On 16 July 1983 a British Airways Helicopters commercial Sikorsky S-61 helicopter, Oscar November (G-BEON), crashed in the southern Celtic Sea, in the Atlantic Ocean, while en route from Penzance to St Mary's, Isles of Scilly in poor visibility. Only six of the twenty-six people on board survived. It was Britain's worst helicopter civil aviation accident at the time.
Barton Aerodrome is an airport in Barton-upon-Irwell, Greater Manchester, England, 5 nautical miles west of Manchester. Formerly known as City Airport and City Airport Manchester, It is known by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) as Manchester/Barton and rebranded as Manchester Barton Aerodrome on 3rd April 2023.
The Isles of Scilly Steamship Company (ISSC) operates the principal shipping service from Penzance, in Cornwall, to the Isles of Scilly, located 28 miles (45 km) to the southwest. It provides a year-round cargo service together with a seasonal passenger service in summer. The name of the company's principal ferry, the Scillonian III, is perhaps better known than that of the company itself.
Land's End Airport, situated near St Just in Penwith, 5 NM west of Penzance, in Cornwall, is the most south westerly airport of mainland Britain. The airport is owned by the Isles of Scilly Steamship Company (ISSC). ISSC's subsidiary Land's End Airport Limited operates the airport, and another subsidiary, Isles of Scilly Skybus, operates a regular passenger service to St Mary's in the Isles of Scilly as well as scenic flights around west Penwith.
British International Helicopter Services (BIH), owned by Bristow Group, is a British-owned helicopter operator. It operates a fleet of ten helicopters covering search and rescue, offshore, defence, charter and flying training activities from its bases at Newquay Airport, Coventry Airport and RAF Mount Pleasant in the Falkland Islands.
St Mary's Airport or Isles of Scilly Airport is an airport located 1 nautical mile east of Hugh Town on St Mary's in the Isles of Scilly, to the south west of Cornwall, UK. It is the only airport serving the Isles of Scilly, handling all air traffic to and from the Islands. The airport is owned by the Duchy of Cornwall and currently is operated by the Council of the Isles of Scilly.
RMV Scillonian III is a passenger ship based at Penzance in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, run by the Isles of Scilly Steamship Company. She operates the principal ferry service to the Isles of Scilly and is one of only three ships in the world still carrying the status of Royal Mail Ship.
Penzance Heliport is located 0.6 NM northeast of Penzance, Cornwall. The heliport hosts scheduled flights to the Isles of Scilly, with a connection to the railway network at Penzance railway station by a special bus service. The original heliport had a single concrete landing pad, which was 30 m × 30 m, inside a 373 m × 45 m grass strip, 08/26.
RMV Scillonian was a passenger ferry built for the Isles of Scilly Steamship Company in 1925 by the Ailsa Shipbuilding Company Ltd of Troon, Scotland. She was designed to carry 400 passengers and cargo between Penzance, Cornwall, UK, to the offshore Isles of Scilly.
Westward Airways is an airline based at Land's End Airport, near St Just and Penzance in Cornwall, England, UK. Until February 2009 it operated sight seeing flights in the local area, also running the former Lands End Flying School and is the operator of Land's End Airport. After a review of the operations, it was decided to close the Lands End Flying School as of Saturday 31 January 2009, after which point Westward Airways also terminated the operation of sightseeing flights. Whilst the two Cessna 152s will be disposed of, the remaining pair of Cessna 172s are to be transferred to Westward Airway's sister company; the Isles of Scilly Skybus, who will then resuming sightseeing flights under their own AOC.
The West Cornwall Steam Ship Company was established in 1870 to operate ferry services between Penzance, Cornwall, and the Isles of Scilly. It became the West Cornwall Steamship Company in 1907 and was wound up in 1917.
The Isles of Scilly is an archipelago off the southwestern tip of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. One of the islands, St Agnes, is the most southerly point in the British Isles, being over four miles further south than the most southerly point of the British mainland at Lizard Point.
British Airways Helicopters was a British helicopter airline from 1964 to 1986.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Cornwall: Cornwall – ceremonial county and unitary authority area of England within the United Kingdom. Cornwall is a peninsula bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall is also a royal duchy of the United Kingdom. It has an estimated population of half a million and it has its own distinctive history and culture.
Robert Arthur Smith-Dorrien-Smith is a British businessman and politician. He is also the current leaseholder of Tresco, an island of the Isles of Scilly.