Airwest Helicopters, Inc.

Airwest Helicopters, Inc., a for-profit Subchapter S corporation based in Redlands, California, provides Type III helicopter flight services to the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture as a prime contractor across wildland fire suppression, search and rescue, natural resource management, and park administration missions. The vendor competes predominantly in full-and-open federal procurements with no set-aside designation across most of its portfolio, though it holds a Total Small Business set-aside seat on the Department of the Interior's On-Call Type III Helicopter Flight Services IDIQ ($49.5 million ceiling, running through April 2027).

Airwest's customer base concentrates heavily within Interior and USDA land-management agencies. The top five funding organizations account for 90% of recent award volume: the Department of the Interior National Park Service Pacific West Region (18 awards, $205 thousand combined potential value), the Department of Agriculture Forest Service Fire and Aviation Management National Interagency Fire Center (16 awards, $22.5 million), the Department of the Interior Departmental Offices Interior Business Center (4 awards, $56 million), the Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management California Region (3 awards, $33 thousand), and the Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management Idaho Region (2 awards, $6.1 million). The value ranking diverges sharply from volume: Interior Business Center anchors $56 million across just four awards (including a $49.5 million IDIQ ceiling), while the National Park Service accounts for the plurality of task orders but carries modest per-order value.

Airwest operates under two primary master IDIQs: the Department of the Interior's On-Call Type III Helicopter Flight Services contract (May 2022 through April 2027, $49.5 million Total Small Business set-aside) and the National Interagency Fire Center's Type 3 Helicopter Support Services MATOC (April 2023 through December 2032, $10 million multiple-award IDIQ). Recent delivery orders under the Interior vehicle include a $110,726 National Park Service trail maintenance order (April 2024), a $27,868 Joshua Tree National Park bighorn sheep survey order (October 2023), and a $24,599 Bureau of Land Management radio repeater flight order (April 2026). The vendor also places orders under a Basic Ordering Agreement (11 task orders, $830 thousand combined potential value) and a legacy DOI On-Call Small Helicopter Flight Service IDIQ (10 task orders, $135 thousand).

Activity has declined over the past four years. The vendor awarded eight orders in 2022 and seven in 2023, declining to two awards in 2024, one in 2025, and one in 2026. This contraction reflects the natural ordering cadence of multi-year IDIQs rather than loss of standing — Airwest remains positioned on both the Interior and USDA master contracts through 2027 and 2032 respectively. Only one award (combined potential value $25 thousand) completes within the next twenty-four months, limiting near-term recompete exposure. The vendor operates exclusively as a prime contractor (100% of awards); no subcontractor relationships appear in the federal record. NAICS concentration is split between Nonscheduled Chartered Passenger Air Transportation (34 awards) and Nonscheduled Chartered Freight Air Transportation (14 awards), with PSC codes reflecting both passenger charter and forest-range fire suppression work.