Temsco Helicopters Inc.

Temsco Helicopters Inc., a division of Southeast Stevedoring Corp. and a small business based in Ketchikan, Alaska, operates as a prime contractor delivering exclusive-use and on-call helicopter flight services across Alaska's remote terrain to federal land management and emergency response agencies. The vendor executes 99% of recent awards as prime (936 of 942 awards), with a footprint dominated by wildland firefighting, search and rescue, aerial surveys, and infrastructure support missions funded by the Department of the Interior and Department of Agriculture.

Temsco's customer concentration centers on federal land agencies. The top five customers by combined potential value account for 93% of the award portfolio: the Interior Business Center (28 awards, $99.4 million), the Bureau of Land Management Idaho Region (58 awards, $95.6 million), the National Park Service Alaska Region (303 awards, $67.6 million), the Bureau of Land Management Alaska Region (44 awards, $42.1 million), and the National Interagency Fire Center (49 awards, $33.4 million). By award count alone, NPS Alaska dominates with 303 awards (64% coverage), but the BLM Idaho Region carries the largest dollar concentration in its fewer awards—a tension reflecting the difference between routine small-order helicopter services and large seasonal firefighting contracts. Temsco has worked with 25 distinct federal agencies, including the U.S. Geological Survey, Fish and Wildlife Service, and Forest Service.

Temsco holds seven active indefinite delivery contracts totaling approximately $60 million in aggregate ceiling value through February 2030. The largest is a $12.5 million single-award National Park Service contract (May 1, 2023, through April 30, 2027) for exclusive use helicopter flight services supporting fire suppression, search and rescue, and natural resource missions across Denali, Wrangell-St. Elias, Gates of the Arctic, and other Alaska parks, with recent delivery orders ranging from routine vegetation monitoring under $4,000 to seasonal operations exceeding $1.3 million. A $10.75 million Bureau of Land Management single-award vehicle (May 1, 2024, through April 30, 2029) provides Type II helicopter fire flight services at Fort Wainwright. A $8 million Interior Business Center contract (March 1, 2025, through February 28, 2030) covers exclusive use search, rescue, and fire suppression at Denali with 120 days of annual exclusive-use availability. A $7.5 million BLM Type III contract (April 1, 2024, through March 31, 2029) supports the Upper Yukon Fire Zone and Fort Wainwright under total small business set-aside. A $6.6 million Interior Business Center vehicle (April 1, 2022, through March 31, 2027) covers Type III helicopter fire services at Fort Wainwright. A $6.2 million Interior Alaska contract (March 30, 2023, through April 30, 2027) provides exclusive use Type III non-fire services for cadastral surveys. A $16.47 million multiple-award Interior Business Center contract (March 1, 2022, through February 28, 2027) delivers on-call contractor-provided helicopter services across Alaska to multiple agencies including NPS, USGS, Natural Resources Conservation Service, BLM, and Fish and Wildlife Service under total small business set-aside. Additional established vehicles include a $6.5 million National Interagency Fire Center Basic Ordering Agreement and a $10.224 million NRCS multiple-award on-call contract. Task order activity under these vehicles has sustained approximately 30 to 53 awards per year over the past five years, with recent FY2026 orders averaging in the $30,000 to $1.6 million range.

Recent representative work illustrates the portfolio's scope. A $1.62 million May 2026 delivery order from the Bureau of Land Management Idaho Region (completion October 15, 2026) covered helicopter fire flight services in Alaska under total small business set-aside, with place of performance at Fort Wainwright. A $815,700 exclusive use Type III non-fire order from Interior Alaska Region (May 25, 2026, completion August 15, 2026) supported non-fire flight services in Anchorage. A $1.28 million April 2026 delivery order from Interior Alaska Region (completion October 31, 2026) provided exclusive use fire management and search and rescue services in Fairbanks. Earlier contracts include a $1.43 million May 2024 National Park Service delivery order for Type III helicopter search and rescue at Denali and Fairbanks (completion October 3, 2024), a $1.32 million May 2023 NPS order for exclusive use fire, search and rescue, and natural resource missions at Denali (completion October 15, 2023), and a $1.30 million May 2023 BLM order for Type II helicopter fire training and support at Fort Wainwright (completion August 13, 2024).

Set-aside posture is mixed across the prime footprint. Approximately 60% of recent awards carry a total small business set-aside designation, reflecting Temsco's qualification and competitive participation in set-aside vehicles. The largest dollar IDCs—the $12.5 million NPS contract and the $10.75 million BLM Type II contract—carry set-aside designations (total small business and no set-aside, respectively). The $16.47 million multiple-award on-call contract is set-aside for total small business. Many of the largest individual delivery orders are issued without set-aside, indicating Temsco also competes successfully in full-and-open procurements leveraging its established performance record.

Activity has remained steady year over year: 46 awards in 2022, 49 in 2023, 53 in 2024, 42 in 2025, and 30 through mid-2026 (a partial-year snapshot). The recompete cliff shows only $1.4 million in combined potential value completing in the next twenty-four months, suggesting a mature and stable portfolio with rolling renewal of major vehicles rather than cliff risk.

Service Contract Inventory data provides a partial view of federal services work. SCI-reportable invoicing totaled $24 million across FY2022–FY2025 ($2.1 million in FY2022, $5 million in FY2023, $7.8 million in FY2024, and $9.1 million in FY2025), with the FTE trajectory showing 4.9 FTEs in FY2022, ramping to 30.0 FTEs in FY2024, and stabilizing around 22.5 FTEs in FY2025. This reflects scaling demand for helicopter support. Government-paid hourly rates on SCI-reportable contracts run a median of $112.80/hour, with a 10th percentile of $72.40/hr and a 90th percentile of $238.95/hr, indicating a spread between routine transport and specialized high-altitude or emergency-response missions. Temsco self-performed all work on its SCI-reportable prime contracts with zero subcontractor hours engaged—a consistent prime-delivery model aligned with the company's core rotary-wing operations.

Temsco operates as a pure prime contractor in its federal footprint, subcontracting only in the rarest cases. Six sub-awards appear in the source—two to Chugach Dynamic Solutions LLC (helicopter transport support for IP radio installation at remote Alaska sites, October 2024 and February 2025) and two to Arete Associates (helicopter rental for submarine security sensor testing, January 2025 and February 2025)—but these represent less than 1% of the 942-award portfolio and reflect work flowing to Temsco as a vendor to a larger prime rather than Temsco relying on downstream subs to deliver its own prime scope. NAICS concentration is stark: 645 of 942 awards fall under nonscheduled chartered passenger air transportation (NAICS 481211), 92 under nonscheduled chartered freight air transportation (NAICS 481212), with a handful of engineering and support services awards. PSC coding aligns: 835 awards use PSC V2F2 (passenger air charter), 67 use V9B (forest-range fire suppression), and smaller clusters appear under other air and natural resources codes.

The corporate structure shows Temsco Helicopters Inc. as a subsidiary of Southeast Stevedoring Corp., a parent company that itself holds federal contract prime awards. The source notes Temsco operates a fleet of turbine and reciprocating engine helicopters from multiple Alaskan bases (Ketchikan, Fairbanks, Anchorage, Soldotna, Fort Wainwright, and others), enabling rapid deployment across the state's remote and challenging terrain for wildland firefighting, search and rescue, stream gage maintenance, infrastructure support, and emergency response. The vendor has executed over 930 delivery orders since 1987, with a combined potential value across all awards of $362.3 million and $132.2 million obligated (36% of potential).