Laayoune – Spain’s Helity Copter Airlines plans to connect Algeciras to Ceuta using a new fleet of electric planes, the Spanish news outlet La Vanguardia reported on August 20.
The Spanish enclave of Ceuta cannot have an airport like Melilla’s as it is surrounded by both the sea and Morocco, the report pointed out, noting that this is what led Helity to construct the area’s first commercial heliport in order to make flying in and out of Ceuta easier.
The airline installed the same equipment at the port of Algeciras, enabling a seven-minute route between the two sides of the strait.
Helity’s fleet includes four Leonardo AW139 helicopters, with each having a 15-passenger capacity. In addition to establishing additional helicopter connections to the Spanish city of Malaga and several Moroccan destinations, the airline intends to supply ships as they traverse the Gibraltar Strait by air.
According to the Spanish news platform Cadena Ser, Helity announced in June its plans to open a regular helicopter service in September from Algeciras to the northern Moroccan cities of Tangier and Tetouan.
Read also: A Helicopter Airline To Link Algeciras to Tangier, Tetouan Starting September
The full implementation of such plans is cumbersome, insisted Helity’s CEO, Antonio Barranco, indicating that the launch of the new route is only pending the designation of the Algeciras Heliport as a Schengen external border.
Barranco explained that once Algeciras’ designation as the Shengen border is made clear, the Helity reservation website will be changed so that flights start with Tangier first and an Algeciras-Tetouan to be added at a later date.
Helity is a Spanish helicopter airline that offers routes connecting Algeciras and Malaga, in southern Spain, to the Spanish enclaves in northern Morocco. The aviation company has transported over 300,000 passengers since it was established in 2014.
