Helicopters have become one of the choices of transportation in modern times. Not surprisingly, helicopters are also owned by various kinds of consumers ranging from corporations to individuals.
But do you know how much it costs someone to have a private helicopter especially in Indonesia?
Whitesky Aviation CEO Denon Prawiraatmadja said the average selling price of a Bell helicopter is around US$ 1.5 million.
Indonesian people who want to buy this helicopter can use the services of Helicopter Management initiated by Whitesky Aviation.
"The average price of a Bell helicopter is US $ 1.5 million. Yes, that number is almost the same as the price of a Lamborghini brand car," said Denon when met at the Singapore Air Show in Singapore.
Not only that, the costs for operating helicopters are not small. Denon said that for a Bell 505 helicopter, for example, the hourly operating cost could reach US$ 1,500 or Rp. 20.2 million.
"The cost is around US$ 1,500 but that includes the pilot," he said. Helicopters can actually be a complementary mode of transportation. In some countries such as America and Brazil, the number of helicopters is so large that traveling with this type of aircraft is nothing new.
"This helicopter is a complement to the mode of transportation. In America and Brazil helicopters are not an exclusive mode of transportation because the number has reached 2,000 units. But in Indonesia there are only a few so people rarely see helicopters," said Denon.
Previously, this helicopter management business line had been run by Whitesky Aviation since 2011. However, at that time this service was only intended for corporations.
Denon hopes that the implementation of this business mode can introduce helicopters more widely to the Indonesian people.
"One of our goals with the line of business we have is to be able to introduce helicopters to the wider community, so that later there will be a desire from them to want to have helicopters," he concluded.
