Mountainflyers has taken over fellow Swiss company Heli-West. CEO Christoph Graf says: "The owner of Heli-West called me in February of this year and asked me to acquire his company, because he said it was too small to manage the increasing regulatory demands from EASA.

"The EASA regulations are an issue for us too so we need to grow to stay competitive. With a bigger fleet and a second location we can manage our operations more effectively as the costs and regulations are the same whether you have one base or more."

Heli-West has been based in Grenchen for close to 17 years and carries out similar activities to Mountainflyers, including flight training, sightseeing tours, photo-graphy and film flights. "It was perfect for us to take over a company with exactly the same positioning as us," adds Graf. "We have to allow some time to bring the companies together now. We will be using the same systems and skills as in our main base at Bern-Belp."

Flight training is the main service provided by both companies, and the Grenchen base will be used primarily as a centre for pilot training.

"I think the helicopter training will continue to do well. We now have an R22 and an EC120 based at Grenchen. We will change the interior of the EC120 and make avionic adjustments, hopefully by the end of this year. We also plan to repaint it soon. Now we are establishing plans to acquire more market share in the region as there is still great potential to grow."