The Red Sea Development Company has awarded a contract to the Helicopter Company in Riyadh for the provision and operation of an AW139 helicopter.

The business will also provide crew and maintenance technicians, in addition to helicopter flight services during daylight hours.

Signed by Red Sea Development chief executive, John Pagano, and Helicopter Company chairman, Raid Ismail, the contract will allow the tourism development emergency medical services with alternate configuration change capability for 14-seat passenger utility transport.

“We’re very pleased to award this contract to the Helicopter Company, the kingdom’s first commercial helicopter operator,” said Pagano.

“This will give us much-needed aerial support for our staff and construction workers over the vast and remote area of our site.

“The welfare of our workers is vital to us and this partnership will ensure we are able to respond with speed to medical emergencies, in addition to making us more operationally efficient.”

At the peak of construction activity, the Red Sea Development is expecting to have up to 30,000 workers in multiple locations over a 1,000 square kilometre development area.

Having the ability to respond rapidly to medical emergencies is a critically important component of worker welfare program.

“Today marks the beginning of our fruitful partnership with the Red Sea Development Company and we are proud to be involved in the advancement of a giga-project of the scale and breadth of the Red Sea Project,” said Arnaud Martinez, chief executive of the Helicopter Company.