Opportunity overview
The procurement of the Northern Lighthouse Board and the Corporation of Trinity House (together the General Lighthouse Authorities (GLAs)) helicopter services support for their Marine Aids to Navigation Strategy to 2037 by providing the means to access and maintain their more remote Aids to Navigation. An effective helicopter service is a vital element in the provision of the GLAs’ service to the mariner: a reliable, efficient and cost-effective network of marine Aids to Navigation. The required outcomes of this contract are: -A reliable, integrated, passenger and cargo (internal and underslung) service. -A helicopter service which is able to recover from weather, aircraft technical failure and other disruptions to planned activities -A service able to respond quickly and efficiently to casualties (light or other navigational aid failures) at any time and in any place in the United Kingdom, Isle of Man and Channel Islands. * Please note this contract is being procured as a Bi-GLA.
Awarded to
Amounts belong to published awards or contracts. Where several suppliers share one value, it is labelled as shared and is not a supplier-specific allocation.
PLM Dollar Group Ltd (trading as PDG Aviation Services)
- Contract value
- £59.4m
- Awarded
- Not supplied
- Contract signed
- 13 Jun 2026
- Award ID
- 063001-2026-GLA/HELI/2221-1
- Status
- active
- Identifier
- SC157532
- Location
- Inverness, UKM, IV2 7XB, United Kingdom
Classification
- CPV60424120 — Hire of helicopters with crew
- CPV34711400 — Special-purpose aircraft
- CPV34711500 — Helicopters
- CPV35612300 — Support helicopters
- CPV35613000 — Unmanned aerial vehicles
- CPV60440000 — Aerial and related services
Lots
- Key Requirements: -Capable of landing on a helipad with a safe loading of four tonnes on a footprint of 250mm x 250mm. -Capable of operating from the helidecks of the GLA vessels. Task examples: - A smaller task would be to carry two technicians with small tools and emergency overnight kit to a lighthouse in the morning and return later the same day; the radius of action is likely to be between 5 and 100 nm. - A larger task might require twelve workers, their baggage and several tons of underslung material to be carried out in several trips from a vessel close by or an onshore location nearby and brought back a few days or weeks later. In practice there are a wide variety of tasks in terms of size, distance and complexity. A task may change to include underslung loads at any time Underslung loads represent between 15 and 32% of the operational flying tasks per year (averaging 22%). They are usually flown from a GLA vessel close by or from an accessible point on the nearest mainland to reduce the distance and duration of the operation. The support of building and renovation tasks at lighthouses creates the requirement for a great variety of weights, shapes, sizes, and natures of underslung loads with different aerodynamic characteristics. The helicopter service will be required throughout the operating areas of the two GLAs (except Gibraltar). Additional information: The GLA Helicopters are to be twin turbine helicopters equipped, certified and capable of operating single pilot Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) operations and to operate under Sub-Part HOFO, capable of: - operating from legacy helidecks of GLA vessels - operating from sub-1D elevated lantern top helipad - operating on rough and uneven ground (including ground with bird nesting holes and burrows).Value not stated