Heli ops on board motoryacht BOLD at The Miami International Boat Show earlier this year

Helicopter operations on charter yachts or tourism vessels are being treated under aviation cabotage laws, resulting in denied operating permits or the need for an 83 bis-style partnership. This approach is outdated and inappropriate for the realities of modern vessel-based aviation.

The problem with Article 83 bis agreements
An Article 83 bis partnership requires an aircraft to be co-registered in the country where it operates and is a system designed for longer-term, land-based operations. However, charter yachts and tourism vessels frequently move between jurisdictions. Re-registering a helicopter multiple times per year is not only administratively burdensome but simply impossible due to the time-consuming export/import inspections and complex paperwork involved.

Therefore, the 83 bis mechanism, while useful in certain contexts, was never designed to support mobile, multinational operations like those conducted from vessels.

Why cabotage doesn’t apply
Cabotage laws are intended to protect domestic markets. The logic is straightforward: flights that originate and end in the same country, serving the local population, must be operated by a national carrier to avoid displacing local operators.

But this logic shouldn’t apply to vessel-based helicopter operations.

Yachts and expedition ships bring their own guests with them. Helicopter flights from these vessels serve only those guests so they are not available to the general public and do not serve the local population. No local operator is being displaced because the service is private and tied to the vessel’s own itinerary.

A double standard in maritime and aviation regulation
This issue is further highlighted when we compare how maritime regulators treat vessel-based services. Ships regularly carry and operate their own tenders and small boats, including Zodiacs, to offer tours and transfers for guests in international ports. These operations do not trigger cabotage concerns in the maritime sector. So why are helicopters treated differently?

The answer seems to be that commercial helicopter operations from vessels are relatively new in both scale and scope. As a result, aviation regulators are struggling to categorise them, often defaulting to the only tools available; outdated interpretations of cabotage law or requirements for aircraft re-registration.

In some countries, exemption applications are evaluated not on operational merit or safety, but on public opinion voiced through working groups. This leaves operators navigating an unclear and inconsistent process, even for low-volume, remote operations that pose no commercial threat to local providers.

A call for practical regulatory reform
The industry needs modern, practical regulatory frameworks that recognise the unique nature of vessel-based helicopter operations. These are not charter flights competing with local operators. They are highly controlled, purpose-specific missions in support of a private vessel’s activities – often in remote areas where no local operator could reasonably service the need without significant cost or logistical complexity.

If maritime regulators have long accepted that ships bring their own tenders for guest operations, aviation regulators must develop a comparable, pragmatic approach for helicopters.

The growth of this sector depends on it – as do the safety, compliance and operational integrity of those pioneering aviation at sea.

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