Who We Are
The VIH Aviation Group encompasses a variety of companies and divisions all specially formulated to work together, providing exceptional dependability and service for our customers both domestically and internationally.
With over 50 years consecutive years of helicopter management service, with current management having over 150 years of combined industry experience, the VIH Aviation group is well poised to provide quality helicopter services throughout the world. Under the management of the VIH Aviation Group is a consortium of global helicopter and aviation companies catering to meet all your aviation service needs.
What We Do
The VIH Aviation Group operates a diverse fleet of helicopters comprised of models from the world’s leading helicopter manufacturers, including Sikorsky, Kamov, Agusta Westland and Bell. The VIH Aviation Group services many helicopter charter markets including Offshore Personnel Transport, Search and Rescue (SAR), Offshore and Onshore Aerial Construction, Executive Charter Services, Forestry, Air Ambulance, Fire Fighting, Mining Exploration and Tourism. In addition to these services, the VIH Aviation Group operates a major helicopter repair and overhaul center, a fixed wing corporate jet charter business as well as a full service corporate aircraft terminal at the Victoria International Airport.
Meet Our Management
Ken Norie
President & CEO
Ken Norie obtained his commercial pilot’s license with helicopter endorsement on his 18th birthday, making him the youngest person in Canadian history to achieve this certification. Ken joined VIH Helicopters as a pilot in 1973 and has over 40 years of helicopter industry experience. In 1978, Ken moved to Prince Rupert as VIH’s Base Manager. In 1986, Ken moved to Victoria as VIH’s Marketing Manager and thereafter became VIH’s Operations Manager. Ken held this position until 1991 when he founded VIH Logging Ltd. which was instrumental in obtaining the Canadian certification of Kamov KA32 helicopters in Canada for use in heli-logging. In 1999 Ken became the sole owner and President of VIH Helicopters and he rebranded and consolidated his growing group of aviation business under VIH Aviation Group Ltd. Under Ken’s ownership the business has grown through acquisitions and strategic investments from a regional domestic VFR operator to a diversified group of aviation businesses providing helicopter services in Canada and internationally.
Our Core Commitments
This Policy and its application to all VIH Aviation Group companies assert that we shall be committed to providing service excellence through exceptional operational and maintenance practices.
Our core competitive principles are:
- Maintain and demonstrate the highest of Safety values
- Safeguard the Health and Safety of all employees and those related with our activities
- Deliver Quality services
- Seek minimal harm to the environment
- Be competitive, just and commercial
- Continually seek improvement
- Preserve and promote good business relationships
Our corporate mission is:
To operate safely with a quality product for a profitable return.
It is the primary understanding that all employees comply with these instructions as this Policy is the backbone of the VIH Aviation Groups’ collective organization, its standard and its procedures. To undertake this Policy, the Groups’ integrated quality and safety management shall conform to ISO ideals, international regulatory requirements and best industry practices for Safety Management Systems. Quality objectives shall be set, reviewed and measured to ensure that our systems are effectively meeting these corporate purposes in compliance with all applicable legislation.
Our History
VIH Helicopters (formerly Vancouver Island Helicopters) was founded in 1955 by Ted Hensen and Bill Boeing Jr., a Seattle-based aircraft dealer and son of the founder of Boeing Aircraft. Canada’s oldest privately held helicopter company started with one single Bell helicopter to provide services on Vancouver Island.
Soon after, Frank Norie, an avid pilot and pioneer in the BC logging industry, became a shareholder in Vancouver Island Helicopters, flying in his Bell 47G2 between his home in Cobble Hill to the company’s head office located at Victoria International Airport. Frank’s eldest son, Ken, also became involved in the company in the early 1970s, beginning as a pilot and quickly moving into management roles. Utilizing Kamov Ka-32A11BC heavy-lift helicopters from Russia, Ken developed a very successful logging division, “VIH Logging Ltd.” After much hard work and persistence, Ken became the sole owner of both Vancouver Island Helicopters and VIH Logging Ltd. in the late ’90s. Under Ken’s leadership, VIH then expanded rapidly, buying up Northern Mountain Helicopters in British Columbia and Cougar Helicopters on the East Coast which had logged an impressive number of flight hours in the midst of some of the world’s most challenging flying weather. Shortly following these acquisitions, VIH Helicopters was soon transformed into the VIH Aviation Group of Companies.
To this day, the VIH Aviation Group headquarters continues to operate its original North Saanich office, although there have been some major changes since the days of that single Bell 47. The VIH Aviation Group head office in North Saanich, British Columbia is now an outstanding facility that houses not only office staff, but additional divisions of the VIH Aviation Group. VIH Aerospace is a state-of-the-art division, operating a service centre staffed with technicians and Aircraft Maintenance Engineers trained to repair every component of a helicopter including increasingly sophisticated communication and navigation systems. YYJ FBO Services is an exceptional full-service fixed base operation located at the Victoria International Airport that provides corporate aircraft storage, fueling services, an executive lounge, as well as many other services to exceed traveler expectations. VIH Execujet is the fixed wing division of the Group, operating an elite Challenger 604 which is available 24/7 for private charters.
The VIH Aviation Group of Companies now employ over 300 people and operate a fleet of over 50 helicopters of many varieties. The VIH Aviation Group operates multiple divisions and operating companies, among which are Cougar Helicopters, with multiple locations on the East coast of Canada and utilizing Sikorsky S92 helicopters to provide passenger transport to the offshore industry, SAR and Helicopter EMS; and VIH Helicopters with locations both on the West coast of Canada and Internationally, working heavy lift, seismic, mining, wildfire operations and forestry.