Helicopter Express LLC

Helicopter Express LLC, an Atlanta-based aviation services provider operating as a for-profit limited liability company, is a prime contractor delivering specialized rotary-wing aircraft support for federal wildland fire management, emergency response, and natural resource protection missions. The company competes full-and-open across all work, with no set-aside designations across its recent award footprint, and operates one named subsidiary, Siller Helicopters LLC.

Helicopter Express provides Type 1, 2, and 3 helicopter flight services including fire suppression, aerial ignition, cargo transport, disaster relief, prescribed burn support, and monitoring operations. The company maintains operational bases in Chamblee, Georgia; Homestead, Florida; Salmon, Idaho; and additional locations nationwide, enabling rapid deployment for federal agencies. Recent representative work includes a $554,000 firm fixed-price delivery order from the Department of Interior for S-64 pilot qualification training (ultimate completion November 2028), multiple delivery orders from the National Interagency Fire Center totaling approximately $26.7 million across fifty-plus task orders under the Type 1 Helicopter Support Services IDIQ (October 2025–June 2026), and a $6.39 million delivery order from the Bureau of Land Management Idaho Region for Type 1 helicopter flight services supporting FY25 fire operations (May 2026).

Customer concentration is extreme and heavily weighted to a single agency. The National Interagency Fire Center accounts for 590 of 877 prime awards (67% by count) and $830.6 million of $1.2 billion combined potential value (69% by dollars). The next four customers—Department of Interior Interior Business Center, Bureau of Land Management Idaho Region, Forest Service R8-Southern Region, and National Park Service Intermountain Region—together represent 128 awards and $231.5 million, but the NIFC anchor dominates. This concentration reflects the vendor's core business model: supporting federal wildland fire suppression across the National Interagency Fire Center's nationwide coordination infrastructure.

Helicopter Express holds four major Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity vehicles. The Type 1 Helicopter Support Services 2025-2034 ($50 million, multiple award, through December 2034) has generated 145 task orders worth $94.3 million. The Type 3 Helicopter Support Services 2023-2032 ($140 million, multiple award, through December 2032) has generated 79 task orders worth $51.1 million. The Helicopter Support Services - Type 2 ($50 million, multiple award, through December 2033) has generated 50 task orders worth $82.1 million. The On-Call Type III Helicopter Flight Services 2022-2027 ($49.5 million, multiple award, small business set-aside, through April 2027) was awarded by the Interior Business Center. The company also sits on Basic Ordering Agreements 12024B20G5025 (163 task orders, $85.3 million) and 12024B20G9802 (109 task orders, $9.5 million). All major vehicle work carries no set-aside designation; Helicopter Express competes as a standard bidder in full-and-open competitive pools.

Award activity declined modestly year over year: 149 awards in FY2024 to 111 in FY2025 to 95 in 2026 (as of early November). Within the next twenty-four months, 64 awards with combined potential value of $7.9 million reach completion, representing limited recompete exposure relative to the vendor's $1.2 billion total portfolio. The SCI data reflects partial visibility into service contract invoicing: $43.4 million reported across FY2022–FY2024, with FY2023 peak at $23.4 million across 30.1 FTEs. Government-paid hourly rates on SCI-reportable prime contracts ran a median of $306.85/hr, with the 10th percentile at $228.09/hr and 90th percentile at $890.70/hr. SCI covers federal services above the $150,000 threshold; Helicopter Express delivers primarily goods (aircraft and equipment rental) and delivery-order task work priced firm fixed, so SCI captures only a subset of the company's federal revenue footprint. The vendor performs 100% of work in-house across SCI-reportable contracts with zero subcontractor hour share.

Helicopter Express operates exclusively as a prime contractor in recent federal contracting activity, with no sub-award presence in the source data. The company's award portfolio is concentrated in NAICS 488190 (nonscheduled chartered freight air transportation) and 488210 (nonscheduled chartered passenger air transportation), reflecting its core helicopter charter and support mission. PSC coding emphasizes natural resources and conservation forest-range fire suppression/presuppression work, with secondary exposure to passenger air charter and environmental services PSCs. The vendor's competitive posture is full-and-open, competing against other helicopter operators on federal vehicles without preferential set-aside treatment, yet it holds dominant market share on the NIFC's primary fire-support aircraft IDIQs through demonstrated capability, cost performance, and geographic logistics advantage.

Helicopter transport/aerial firefighting