Papillon Airways Inc.

Papillon Airways Inc., doing business as Papillon Grand Canyon Helicopters, operates as a small business prime contractor providing exclusive-use and on-call Type III helicopter flight services to federal land management and emergency response agencies across the Western United States, competing predominantly under total small business set-aside designations on a subset of its portfolio.

Papillon Airways is a for-profit organization headquartered in Grand Canyon Village, Arizona. The company operates as a child entity of parent Papillon Airways, Inc. The vendor specializes in helicopter operations under primary NAICS 481211 (Nonscheduled Chartered Passenger Air Transportation) and PSC V199 (air transportation), with 251 awards across the Nonscheduled Chartered Passenger Air Transportation category and 44 awards in forest and range fire suppression work. Papillon competes across both set-aside and full-and-open vehicles; 59% of recent awards carry total small business set-aside designations, while the remainder compete without set-asides, indicating established competitive positioning in open federal procurements.

Papillon's capability footprint centers on helicopter delivery for wildland fire suppression, prescribed burns, personnel and equipment transportation to remote areas, search and rescue support, law enforcement surveillance, aerial surveys, and natural resource management. Representative recent work includes a $754,480 delivery order from the Bureau of Indian Affairs for exclusive-use Type III helicopter services at Whiteriver, Arizona for the 2026 wildland fire season; a $1.184 million firm fixed-price delivery order from the National Park Service Pacific West Region for exclusive-use helicopter services at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks through March 2027; and a $2.346 million task order from the National Interagency Fire Center for Type 3 helicopter support services at Morgan, Utah through December 2028, awarded under a $50 million multiple-award IDIQ.

Customer concentration is pronounced and split between volume and dollars. By award count, the Department of the Interior's National Park Service Intermountain Region dominates with 68 awards, accounting for 59% of recent awards across the top five customer agencies; by potential value, the same Intermountain Region leads with $103.9 million combined value, followed closely by the Department of Agriculture Forest Service Fire and Aviation Management National Interagency Fire Center with 38 awards and $68.6 million. The Interior Business Center anchors $62.1 million in combined potential value across just five awards—a signal of high-dollar IDIQs sitting beneath that office's administrative umbrella. The National Park Service Pacific West Region, Bureau of Land Management Idaho Region, and scattered regional offices across BLM, Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Geological Survey, and Fish and Wildlife Service round out the active portfolio.

Papillon holds primary positions on four indefinite delivery vehicles totaling approximately $124.3 million in ceiling value. The Department of the Interior's On-Call Type III Helicopter Flight Services 2022–2027 contract is a $49.5 million multiple-award IDIQ extending through April 2027, designated as a total small business set-aside, with 34 delivery orders executed to date covering missions across Department of Interior bureaus (National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Geological Survey, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Fish and Wildlife Service). The National Park Service Intermountain Region's single-award exclusive-use contract for Grand Canyon National Park helicopter services is valued at $16.78 million through January 2027 and carries total small business set-aside status; Papillon has generated twelve delivery orders totaling approximately $9.81 million under this vehicle. The National Interagency Fire Center's Type 3 Helicopter Support Services contract is a $50 million multiple-award IDIQ extending through December 2032 without set-aside designation; four task orders totaling approximately $1.94 million have been executed through mid-2026. A recently awarded Bureau of Indian Affairs exclusive-use Type III helicopter contract for Whiteriver, Arizona carries a $10 million ceiling through May 2031 under total small business set-aside and generated a $754,480 delivery order concurrent with award.

Activity has moderated year over year from 33 awards in 2023 to 16 in 2024, then rebounded to 23 in 2025 and 17 through early 2026. The recompete cliff over the next twenty-four months includes 16 awards with combined potential value of $5.9 million reaching ultimate completion—a moderate exposure given the vendor's large IDIQ portfolio, though the Grand Canyon Intermountain Region contract recompete in January 2027 carries material dollar weight ($16.78 million ceiling) and will be decision-relevant for competitive tracking.

SCI-reported invoicing totaled $20.1 million across FY2022–FY2024, declining from $8.7 million (18.2 FTEs) in FY2022 to $4.1 million (8.0 FTEs) in FY2024. This SCI subset represents only federal service contracts above the $150,000 reporting threshold and excludes goods, products, and the bulk of Papillon's federal revenue, which flows through delivery orders for aircraft operations priced as transportation services rather than labor services. Government-paid hourly rates on SCI-reportable contracts ran a median $252.62/hr, with senior labor pricing reaching the 90th percentile at $314.08/hr. Papillon performs all work directly; the vendor carries zero named subcontractors across its prime portfolio, operating as a wholly self-performing helicopter operator rather than a service integrator.

Papillon Airways operates without subsidiaries and maintains no named prime-contractor teaming relationships in the source data; all 396 awards in the portfolio are prime awards. The vendor does not appear as a subcontractor on other primes' federal contracts. This prime-only profile, combined with 100% self-performance and aircraft-centric service delivery, positions Papillon as a specialized aerial operations provider rather than a broader federal contractor or program integrator.

WE FLY SCENIC TOURS OF THE GRAND CANYON BY HELICOPTER - SCHEDULED SERVICE TO (HAVASUPAI-INDIAN RESERVATION) CHARTER - GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS, EXECUTIVE TRANSPORT, PHOTOGRAPHY.