Redding Air Service, Inc.

Redding Air Service, Inc., a for-profit helicopter aviation services provider based in Redding, California, operates as a prime contractor delivering aerial firefighting, fire suppression, cargo and personnel transport, reconnaissance, search and rescue, and prescribed burn operations exclusively to federal wildland fire management and natural resource agencies on a full-and-open basis with no SBA set-aside designations.

Redding Air Service competes exclusively as a prime contractor—100% of its 169 recent awards are prime contracts or IDIQs—and executes work directly without material subcontractor involvement. The vendor's customer base concentrates heavily on the Department of Agriculture's National Interagency Fire Center, which accounts for 45 awards ($183.9 million combined potential value) across 64% coverage of the award portfolio. The top five federal customers by potential value are the National Interagency Fire Center ($183.9 million), the Department of the Interior Departmental Offices Interior Business Center ($62 million on six awards), the Department of the Interior Departmental Offices Office of Policy Management and Budget ($40 million on one award), the Department of the Interior Bureau of Indian Affairs Rocky Mountain Region ($2.7 million), and the Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management Idaho Region ($2.1 million on eight awards). The vendor also has smaller engagement with the Department of Energy Western Area Power Administration (30 awards, $1.1 million combined potential value) and the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (14 awards).

Redding Air Service holds seats on four major federal helicopter services IDIQs. The Helicopter Support Services - Type 2 multiple-award IDIQ, a $50 million vehicle issued by the National Interagency Fire Center effective January 1, 2024, through December 2033, has generated 16 task orders totaling $2.7 million in combined potential value. The Type 3 Helicopter Support Services 2023 - 2032 IDIQ, another $50 million multiple-award vehicle from NIFC awarded April 12, 2023, through December 2032, funds specialized helicopter support for wildland fire management including fire suppression, prescribed burns, short-haul operations, and reconnaissance. The On-Call Type III Helicopter Flight Services 2022 - 2027 IDIQ, a $49.5 million total small business set-aside multiple-award vehicle awarded by the Department of the Interior effective May 1, 2022, through April 30, 2027, has generated eight delivery orders. The vendor also operates under a $3.5 million single-award small business IDIQ for helicopter services (May 30, 2022, through October 31, 2022) and places task orders under multiple blanket purchase agreements including IND80ARA1540 (16 task orders), DEAB6511WN93915 (14 task orders, $191 thousand), DEWA0001963 (10 task orders, $204 thousand), and BOA 12024B20G5051 (8 task orders, $2.8 million).

Recent representative work includes a $319,522 firm fixed-price delivery order from the National Interagency Fire Center (July 16, 2026) for helicopter aviation support services completing August 3, 2026; a $270,759 delivery order from NIFC (August 16, 2026) for helicopter aviation support services; and a $1.65 million delivery order from NIFC (February 1, 2025) under the Type 3 Helicopter Support Services IDIQ for helicopter support at Prineville, Oregon, with completion through December 31, 2029. The vendor also executes orders for the Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service, including a $518,299 delivery order from BLM Idaho Region (June 5, 2024) for Type III helicopter fire suppression in Miles City, Montana, and a $709,884 order from BLM Idaho Region (August 20, 2024) for small helicopter flight services supporting fire management in Idaho.

Award activity has remained modest and seasonal. The source data spans 1987 to September 2026, with recent activity showing eight awards in 2022, six in 2023, eleven in 2024, two in 2025, and eleven so far in 2026 (as of the most recent award September 1, 2026). Combined potential value across all 169 awards totals $296.2 million, with $52.3 million (18% of potential value) obligated to date. Only four awards with combined potential value of $232 thousand face ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, limiting near-term recompete exposure. The vendor's work is concentrated in NAICS 481211 (nonscheduled chartered passenger air transportation; 68 awards) and 481212 (nonscheduled chartered freight air transportation; 55 awards), with PSC coding split between V405 (passenger air charter; 52 awards) and F100 (forest-range fire suppression; 47 awards).

SCI-reported service contract invoicing on federal contracts above the $150,000 threshold totaled $1.2 million in FY2024 across 1.4 full-time equivalents. Government-paid median hourly rates on SCI-reportable work ran around $448.57 per hour, with senior-level labor pricing through $570.24 per hour and entry-level labor around $326.90 per hour. The vendor operates as a direct-delivery prime across all SCI records with zero subcontracted hours, consistent with its full-and-open prime-only posture across the broader award footprint.

HELICOPTER SERVICE - PART 135 AND 91, 133 AND 145. CHARTER, PAX AND CARGO, LONG LINE, HELI-TORCH, FIRE SUPPRESSION, SIGHT SEEING, POWER AND PIPE LINE PATROL, FORESTRY, SURVEY, RECONN, FILMING AND PHOTO, ANIMAL HURDING, ANIMAL AND BIRD COUNTS, SNOW, ETC.