Heliport Kaluga to be put into operation in 2016

A heliport will be inaugurated in Kaluga in the second half of 2016, Katerina Granovskaya, head of sales at Heliport Moscow (a part of the Heliports of Russia project), announced on September 10 at JetExpo 2015. Construction is to begin shortly at the centrally located site on the bank of the river Oka. Over 300 million rubles ($4.4 million at the current exchange rate) in private investment will go into the project. Heliport Kaluga will include a flying school and a maintenance center for Robinson and Airbus Helicopters types. It is also possible that MRO services will be offered on Bell helicopters; an agreement to that effect is expected to be signed at JetExpo. The first Bell MRO center in Russia will be opened at Heliport Reutov. Heliport Kaluga, a certified distributor and MRO provider for rotary-wing aircraft, will also provide storage space for up to 40 helicopters, including in heated hangars. The project is being implemented under an agreement between Helicopters of Russia and the Kaluga Region administration on creating a multiformat helicopter services center in the city. Helicopters of Russia is also planning to build a heliport in Tyumen, whose construction and initial operation are expected to commence in 2016. Several new heliports were put into operation in 2015, including the one in Reutov, as well as partners' helipads in Bryansk, Krasnodar, and Novosibirsk. Talks are on to open heliports in Kazan, Sochi, Rostov, Ufa, Vladivostok, and other cities.