Penzance Heliport is located northeast of

Penzance Penzance ( ; kw, Pennsans) is a town, civil parish and port in the Penwith district of Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is the most westerly major town in Cornwall and is about west-southwest of Plymouth and west-southwest of London. Situ ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a Historic counties of England, historic county and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people ...

. The heliport hosts scheduled flights to the

Isles of Scilly The Isles of Scilly (; kw, Syllan, ', or ) is an archipelago off the southwestern tip of Cornwall, England. One of the islands, St Agnes, is the most southerly point in Britain, being over further south than the most southerly point of th ...

, 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 , inside a grass strip, 08/26. The first heliport was officially closed on 31 October 2012. A new heliport is now operational and is the base for a new helicopter service to the islands of Tresco and St Mary's, operated by Penzance Helicopters in conjunction with Sloane Helicopters.

History

Services started on 1 May 1964 when BEA Helicopters operated the first service between Penzance and the

with a

Sikorsky S-61 The Sikorsky S-61L and S-61N are civil variants of the SH-3 Sea King military helicopter. It was developed and produced by the American helicopter manufacturer Sikorsky Aircraft. The commercial version of the Sea King was developed during the ...

. The construction of the heliport cost £88,000 (). This heliport, opened formally on 1 September 1964 by Councillor Alfred Beckerleg, the Mayor of Penzance with the Lady Mayoress, was at . Due to the high costs of maintaining the service and falling passenger numbers,

British International Helicopters 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 i ...

ceased the operation of the helicopter route on 31 October 2012. The company announced that it intended to sell the heliport to a supermarket chain and relocate to another site in West Cornwall to raise funds, although no suitable alternative site was found in time to save the service. In early April 2013, demolition work on the main terminal buildings began, and by September 2013, nothing remained of the former heliport, with a supermarket chain now dominating the site.

New heliport

In 2016 plans were announced for a new helicopter service between Penzance and the Isles of Scilly, serving both St Mary's and Tresco. The proposals include building a new heliport on Jelbert Way, Penzance, near to the location of the old one. The planning application received the highest level of support Cornwall Council had ever received for a planning application. Planning consent for the new heliport was first granted in a unanimous decision by Cornwall Council's Strategic Planning Committee in February 2017. The decision was later challenged by the Isles of Scilly Steamship Company in a

judicial review Judicial review is a process under which executive, legislative and administrative actions are subject to review by the judiciary. A court with authority for judicial review may invalidate laws, acts and governmental actions that are incomp ...

. A petition against the Judicial Review gained more than 11,000 signatures and an amended planning application was submitted. The amended application was granted planning consent in a second unanimous decision by Cornwall Council in August 2018. The new heliport was built during 2018 and 2019, with services commencing in March 2020, flying to the islands of St Mary's and Tresco.

Airlines and destinations

Statistics

References

External links

Penzance HeliportInformation on scheduled flights to the Isles of Scilly
{{authority control Airports in Cornwall Heliports in England Buildings and structures in Penzance