Airlines operating both commercial fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters are a rarity, but in certain countries, remote locales and difficult terrain all but require it. That’s the case with Atlantic Airways, which operates in the Faroe Islands, a stunning but remote island chain in the North Atlantic Ocean about midway between Great Britain and Iceland.
The mountainous country’s only airport has a single runway and no space to build a second, but it does have spread out heliports served by Atlantic’s two AgustaWestland 139s. The airline doesn’t operate a traditional hub-and-spoke network for the helicopters. Instead, they leave the country’s main airport in Vágar and hop between communities before returning to the airport. The services aren’t frequent and only operate a couple of times a week.
It can be somewhat difficult to understand how the network runs, so I also created a map from Google Earth of the approximate routing of these helicopter flights. These are subject to change and could be altered based on the needs of the communities and search and rescue operations.
Atlantic Airways CEO Jóhanna á Bergi said the helicopter flights are meant to support the country’s citizens first and are vital to those needing to get around quickly for appointments and other important needs. Tourists can book these flights, but only about a week out from the departure date and for the most part only as a one-way flight. Residents of the Faroe Islands get to book these seats about a month or so in advance.
“When we have some tourists take a ride on the helicopter, it’s because there is enough space on the helicopter, but the people living on the different islands, they will always have first priority in booking a ticket,” Bergi said.
The helicopters all depart from the main airport of Vágar and hop around to other communities, but there is one route that goes to the small western island of Mykines and right back. While in the Faroe Islands, I had the pleasure of going on a round-trip journey to Mykines and back, which was also my first ever helicopter flight.
Day of the Flight
Check-in for the helicopter flights closes 30 minutes before the scheduled departure time. Passengers gather at a pole marked the “meeting point.”
Once everyone is checked in, they have you watch a safety video.
Roughly 10 minutes before departure, they put us all on a small shuttle that brought us out to the helicopter. The AgustaWestland 139 I was taking over to Mykines carried the name “Sámal Joensen-Mikines,” who was a painter born in the Faroe Islands, actually on the exact island I was flying to.
According to the Atlantic Airways website, the helicopters in their fleet can be equipped to carry up to 15 passengers, but my flight had only six passenger seats in it, which added a lot more room and is closer to the configuration used for search and rescue operations compared to commercial passenger operations.
After a quick announcement from the pilot, we taxied to the runway and took to the skies.
With this being my first ever helicopter flight, I will say it was a weird feeling going straight up from the runway, but I quickly got over it once I saw the views.
Although the day was cloudy and gloomy, the weather made the green hillsides pop in photographs. I spent the entire ride looking out at the amazing Faroese landscape.
Even though I was on the left side of the helicopter, I could see views out of the right side, including the village of Gásadalur and the famous Múlafossur Waterfall.
It wasn’t very long before I could see Mykines. We wrapped around the north side of the island and then went south. At one point, we could see Mykines in the right foreground and the Vágar airport in the far middle background.
We continued to go south and then flew past the Mykines Hólmur Lighthouse, the westernmost point in the Faroe Islands.
After going around the western tip of the island, we approached Mykines and the single settlement on the island and landed at its heliport.
While on the ground in Mykines, the crew unloaded and reloaded passengers as well as cargo, and what looked like bags of mail. We were only on the ground in Mykines for a total of three minutes, and the propellers were never turned off.
Leaving the island, we went around the south side of Mykines and headed east.
On the trip back, we flew just to the south of the islands of Gáshólmur, as well as the southern side of Tindhólmur. We continued to fly east and got some amazing views of the southern coastline of Vágar.
We continued to fly east, past a lake called Sørvágsvatn and Bøsdalafossur Waterfall.
After passing the falls, we saw the Trælanípa Cliff and even some people standing on the top of it. We then did a right loop back towards the falls, and went directly over the center of Sørvágsvatn.
Not long after getting out over Sørvágsvatn, I was able to see Vágar Airport and the country’s single runway, whose approach lights go out over the lake.
We came into the airport from the north and landed on the runway, and taxied to the helicopter parking spot.
We landed back at the airport only 23 minutes after leaving for Mykines. The journey wasn’t very long, but it was definitely one of the most scenic flights I have ever been on. The clouds helped somewhat because there was no sun shining directly into my face for any of the flight.
None of the flight trackers were able to pick up our entire route, so I pieced one together on Google Earth using what tracking data I did have, along with picture and video location pins from my phone and camera.
Once we pulled back into the same parking space we left from, they opened the door and we hopped out, with the helicopter immediately leaving again for its next job or mission.
I had a wonderful time, and I could not have had a better first experience on a helicopter, as the views were breathtaking. The residents of the Faroe Islands have first priority on these flights, so I am glad there was room for me to take a ride out to Mykines and back and I definitely recommend it, as it is a nice quick intro to being on a helicopter.
A video trip report of this journey can be found below:
Editor’s Note: Atlantic Airways provided AirlineGeeks with a seat on this flight, but this trip report is an objective portrayal of events.
