Exclusive Use Helicopter Flight Services, Yosemite

The Department of the Interior's Interior Business Center is soliciting exclusive use helicopter flight services at Yosemite National Park, California, supporting the U.S. Wildland Fire Service, with offers due November 13, 2026. The procurement is a Total Small Business set-aside, placed on an Indefinite-Delivery, Indefinite-Quantity vehicle with a $15,000,000 ceiling. Amendment 0002, posted November 4, 2026, clarifies aircraft specifications, incorporates questions and answers, and attaches a conformed solicitation. Offerors must acknowledge receipt of each amendment before the deadline, and failure to do so may result in rejection.

The contract runs March 1, 2027 through February 29, 2032, consisting of a base year and four one-year ordering periods. Services are performed exclusively at Yosemite National Park, with the designated base at Crane Flat Helibase. The Acquisition Services Directorate in Herndon, Virginia administers the procurement.

The requirement is one medium turbine helicopter under exclusive use for 172 days annually (May 3 to October 22). The aircraft must have nine passenger seats, a 1,500-pound non-jettisonable hover-out-of-ground-effect payload at 30 degrees Celsius and 7,000 feet pressure altitude, skid landing gear, dual hydraulics, two water/retardant buckets, and rappel and short-haul configurations. The contractor must hold FAA Part 135 and Part 133 certificates. Per Amendment 0001 summary, the Part 135 certificate must be held directly by the prime, and subcontracting this requirement to a certified operator is not permissible. The contractor must also provide a fuel servicing vehicle with a minimum 16-hour fuel capacity, an office trailer, and relief pilot, mechanic, and driver positions.

The base year guarantees 172 days of daily availability and estimates 250 flight hours. A $35,000 not-to-exceed amount applies to additional time-and-materials items. Offerors must price all five years using daily availability and flight hour rates in whole dollars. In the lower 48 states, fuel is included in the flight rate (wet rate).

Evaluation factors are technical capability, organizational safety management systems, and past performance. The solicitation does not state factor weights.

The NAICS code is 481211, Nonscheduled Chartered Passenger Air Transportation, and the PSC is V211.