What the US charter fleet actually flies
1220 helicopters across 25 types, counted from the FAA Part 135 certificate list. Not a catalogue of every helicopter ever built — a count of the ones you could realistically be offered.
| Type | On certificates | Operators | Share of fleet |
|---|---|---|---|
| Airbus Helicopters AS350 Écureuil | 382 | 90 |
31.3%
|
| Airbus Helicopters H130 | 261 | 21 |
21.4%
|
| Robinson R44 | 194 | 111 |
15.9%
|
| Airbus Helicopters H135 | 64 | 11 |
5.2%
|
| Robinson R66 | 58 | 40 |
4.8%
|
| Bell 206 JetRanger | 43 | 33 |
3.5%
|
| Leonardo AW139 | 42 | 9 |
3.4%
|
| Leonardo AW119 Koala | 31 | 8 |
2.5%
|
| Bell 206L LongRanger | 31 | 19 |
2.5%
|
| Leonardo A109 | 28 | 12 |
2.3%
|
| Airbus Helicopters H225 | 19 | 1 |
1.6%
|
| Airbus Helicopters AS355 Écureuil 2 | 9 | 9 |
0.7%
|
| Bell 505 Jet Ranger X | 8 | 7 |
0.7%
|
| Airbus Helicopters H145 | 7 | 3 |
0.6%
|
| Airbus Helicopters H155 | 7 | 3 |
0.6%
|
| MD Helicopters MD 600N | 5 | 3 |
0.4%
|
| MD Helicopters MD 902 Explorer | 5 | 3 |
0.4%
|
| Airbus Helicopters H160 | 4 | 1 |
0.3%
|
| Airbus Helicopters AS365 Dauphin | 4 | 3 |
0.3%
|
| Robinson R22 | 4 | 4 |
0.3%
|
| Airbus Helicopters AS332 Super Puma | 4 | 1 |
0.3%
|
| Leonardo AW189 | 4 | 1 |
0.3%
|
| Airbus Helicopters BO 105 | 3 | 2 |
0.2%
|
| Airbus Helicopters H120 | 2 | 2 |
0.2%
|
| MD Helicopters MD 500 | 1 | 1 |
0.1%
|
How to read this
The concentration is the interesting part. A handful of single-engine turbine types account for most of the certificated rotorcraft fleet, which is why the aircraft you are offered for a typical charter is fairly predictable regardless of who you ask. If somebody quotes you something exotic, it is worth asking where it is coming from and what the positioning costs, because there is a good chance it is not based anywhere near you.
Fleet count and operator count tell you different things. A type flown by many operators in small numbers is one you can source competitively almost anywhere. A type concentrated in one or two large fleets usually means a specialist mission — offshore, air medical, heavy lift — and the aircraft may simply not be available for passenger charter no matter what it costs.
The caveats, stated plainly
- This counts airframes on Part 135 certificates, not aircraft available for charter. An air ambulance operator's fleet is on this list and will never fly you to a wedding.
- An aircraft can appear on more than one operator's certificate, which is normal in this industry and means the totals here slightly exceed the number of distinct airframes.
- The FAA's make/model strings are inconsistent, so we normalise them. A small number of unusual entries do not map cleanly to a type and are excluded from these counts rather than guessed at.
- This is US data only. It says nothing about the fleet in Europe, the Gulf or Latin America, where the type mix is materially different.
Why there are no individual type pages yet
Because a spec table alone does not make a page worth having. A Bell 407 and an AS350 agree on nearly every specification a table would show — single engine, roughly six seats, similar range, similar hourly rate — so two pages built from specs would say almost exactly the same thing twice. The useful differences are the ones a spec sheet does not carry: which mission each type grew up doing, where you actually meet it, whether it is certified to fly in cloud, and what its noise profile means for the pads it is allowed into. We are writing those, one type at a time, and each publishes when it has something to say beyond what the manufacturer's brochure already says better.
In the meantime, if you want to know which type suits your trip, the honest answer depends on your party size, the distance, and where you are trying to land. Describe the trip and we will tell you what is realistic.