Heli-tourism venture takes off in Kerala

The much-awaited 'Chopper Tourism' took off in the Kerala capital on Friday with King Rotors and Air Charter Pvt Ltd jointly kicking off operations at a function here.

According to sources at Airtravel Enterprises (ATE), the company whose leisure arm Great India Tour Company (GITC) is marketing the heli-tourism packages, a number of cost effective packages like 'Capital by Air', 'Backwaters by Air', 'Fly the Hills' and 'Shoreline Flights' has been lined up for tourists. The packages cost Rs 70,000 on an hourly basis.

Elaborating on the packages, a company official said while the 'Capital by Air' package offers sightseeing trip around the Thiruvananthapuram city, the 'Backwaters by Air' package takes the tourists around the much sought-after backwater spot, Kumarakom.

The 'Fly the Hill' package provides tourists a taste of Thekkady, Munnar, Kochi and Kumarakom, and 'Shoreline Flights' package offers sightseeing flights to Kanyakumari along the picturesque coastline.

Besides the tour packages, ATE also offers charters for VVIP travel, delegate entertainment, travel to conference destinations, aerial surveys, power wind reconnaissance, videography, disaster management, relief operations, geophysical surveys and election campaigning, air ambulances, search and rescue missions.

Chetak Helicopter deployed for the purpose has a capacity to carry six passengers apart from the pilot.