Air Center Helicopters, Inc.

Air Center Helicopters, Inc., a for-profit helicopter operator headquartered in Burleson, Texas, delivers rotary-wing flight services, rescue and instructional training, and vertical replenishment operations to Department of Defense and civilian federal agencies as a prime contractor across a $7.07 billion combined-potential-value footprint. The company competes predominantly full-and-open rather than under set-asides, though it holds a total small business set-aside position on the OASIS+ SB GWAC and maintains three total small business set-aside definitive contracts with Military Sealift Command and Air Combat Command.

Air Center Helicopters' customer concentration anchors with the Navy. The top five funding agencies (representing 80% of award count) are the Department of the Interior Departmental Offices (154 awards), Naval Sea Systems Command (152 awards, $201.9 million combined potential value), Air Combat Command (23 awards, $71.1 million), the National Science Foundation Division of Polar Programs (13 awards, $95.5 million), and the Army Corps of Engineers Engineering District Jacksonville (11 awards). By potential-value ranking, Navy programs dominate: Military Sealift Command carries $362.9 million across eight awards (vertical replenishment operations in the Pacific and Middle East), and NAVSEA accounts for $201.9 million across 152 task orders for medium-lift helicopter support to the Program Executive Office for Integrated Warfare Systems testing through 2030. Army Materiel Command Expeditionary Contracting Command and Air Mobility Command together carry $384 million in four awards for rotary-wing operations in Afghanistan and Africa. Representative prime work includes a $77.8 million firm-fixed-price definitive contract from Military Sealift Command (July 2024, awarded through January 2030) for vertical replenishment services supporting Pacific Detachment C operations in Guam; a $56.3 million definitive contract from Military Sealift Command (March 2022) for NAVCENT Detachment A ship-based logistics in Bahrain; a $4.87 million task order from NAVSEA (August 2025) for exclusive-use medium-lift helicopter support based in Norfolk; and a $146.5 million delivery order from Army Africa Command (December 2021) under the Worldwide Airlift Services Program for rotary-wing airlift across North and West Africa.

Air Center Helicopters operates via five primary parent vehicles. The Indefinite Delivery Contract IND13PC00222 (138 task orders, $15.3 million combined potential value) and four NAVSEA-issued IDVs (IDCs 140693801574, 140695810662, 140698801800 with 145 combined task orders) anchor Navy testing and helicopter support work. A $35 million single-award NAVSEA IDV (awarded August 1, 2025, through July 31, 2030) provides exclusive-use and on-call medium-lift helicopter support to PEO IWS. A $3.5 million single-award Air Combat Command IDV (awarded November 1, 2025, through October 31, 2030) covers rotary-wing airlift in support of Davis Monthan rescue training at Tucson, Arizona. Air Force Special Operations Command has contracted Air Center for multiple training task orders (September 2024, $1.81 million for Contracted Combat Aviation Advisor training; April 2024, $1.80 million for 68th Rescue Squadron rescue and training). The OASIS+ SB GWAC position (July 2, 2025) is a multiple-award vehicle with a multi-billion-dollar ceiling and a base period through July 1, 2030, available for integrated professional services task orders across federal agencies. A single $3.5 million Call When Needed IDV with the National Interagency Fire Center (awarded June 1, 2022, through December 31, 2024) provides wildland fire suppression helicopter support.

Activity has remained modest and flat in recent years—ten awards in 2021 declining to six in both 2024 and 2025—with four awards (combined potential value $166.9 million) reaching ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months and exposing the company to recompete risk in that window. Across the prime footprint, capability concentration is pronounced: 249 awards (56%) fall under NAICS 481211 (Nonscheduled Chartered Passenger Air Transportation), 24 awards under flight training, and 11 under freight air transportation. PSC coding reflects the same emphasis, with 354 awards coded to passenger air charter and 20 to education and training.

SCI-reported invoiced revenue from federal service contracts above the $150,000 reporting threshold totaled $31 million across FY2022–FY2024 (FY2022: $7.3 million; FY2023: $14.5 million; FY2024: $9.2 million), with an associated federal FTE delivery of 4.5 FTEs in FY2022, 9.8 FTEs in FY2023, and 6.1 FTEs in FY2024. On those SCI-reportable contracts, government-paid hourly rates ran a median of approximately $397 per hour, with senior labor pricing reaching $1,455 per hour and entry-level rates around $84 per hour. Air Center Helicopters performs its delivery exclusively as a prime contractor on federal service contracts; SCI data show zero subcontract hour engagement. The company operates one documented subcontract position as a sub to Peraton Inc. on NASA Balloon Facility operations and management (awarded January 31, 2025), representing a minor exposure to the subcontractor base.