The story
Pawan Hans Limited (PHL) was incorporated on 15 October 1985 as the Helicopter Corporation of India (HCI). It commenced its operations on 1 November 1985 with 2 British Westland helicopters and later acquired 21 more helicopters. Union government had 78.5% ownership and 21.5% with ONGC. The name was changed to Pawan Hans Ltd in August 1986. In 1986/87, PHL started operating in Andaman and Nicobar islands and Lakshadweep islands.
During 1987, due to technical and structural problems plaguing the helicopter fleets, PHL grounded 9 Westland and 7 Dauphins helicopters. The Indian Air Force provided some of their older helicopters to PHL to meet the shortfall on government directives. In 1988/89, multiple crashes got PHL into serious trouble and forced PHL to withdraw all helicopter services except for one charted by ONGC. However, PHL still managed to operate a Helicopter Mail Service, though in late 1988 the HMS initiative was also withdrawn.
In 1997, Pawan Hans Helicopter Ltd and Pawan Hans Pilots' Guild settled several worker conditions. In 2001, A.P.J. Kalam who at that time was Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India barely escaped when the rotor of a helicopter carrying him broke down, bringing down the chopper belonging to PHL.
In July 2002, PHL was awarded the Quality Summit International Award in the Gold Category in New York for its excellence, quality, and corporate achievement by Business Initiative Directions (BID), Spain. On 16 May 2003, PHL started its Kedarnath operations with five-seater Bell-407 helicopter. On 26 August 2004, PHL signed a MOU with Uttaranchal government's Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam Ltd to promote tourism in state. In 2007, PHL started a 10-person project to upgrade skills of their aeronautical engineer so to make them pilots as to fight shortage of pilots.
On 15 Feb 2008, PHL and Indian Air Force signed Memorandum of Understanding. The MOU enabled IAF helicopter pilots which were nearing retirement age to be inducted into PHL. In 2008, PHL gave Dauphin N-3 helicopters to state anti-naxal operation cell as to counter Maoist insurgency in Vidarbha District. In 2010, ONGC has upped its stake to 49%, a move that will saw the equity base of PHL being enhanced to ₹245 crores from the existing ₹113 crores.
On 27 December 2010, seaplane services were operationalized in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands as per the MOU signed between the Andaman and Nicobar Administration and PHL. The service began with an eight-seater Cessna 208A Amphibian seaplane named Jal Hans, which will be used by PHHL to ferry tourists between Port Blair and Havelock Island in the presence of Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel. This was the first introduction of seaplanes in India.
On 29 April 2011, a Pawan Hans AS350 B-3 helicopter carrying Dorjee Khandu, the Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh, and four other people went missing. It was traced four days later near Lobthang. All 5 people were found dead. After this incident, the states of Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh suspended PHL services.
As of January 2017, the partially government owned helicopter service provider had a net worth of ₹3,701.5 crores, and paid-up equity share capital was ₹245.61 crores. Pawan Hans is an "Approved Maintenance Centre of Eurocopter" and also the first ISO 9001: 2000 certified aviation company in India. On 12 January 2017, the Government of India approved the privatization of Pawan Hans.
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In July 2020, first helicopter service by PHL in Uttarakhand started operating under UDAN-RCS scheme. On 3 July 2023, the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) scrapped the strategic disinvestment after it disqualified the successful bidder Star 9 Mobility Pvt Ltd, a consortium of three companies Maharaja Aviation Pvt, Big Charter Pvt, led by Almas Global Opportunity Fund. The consortium had placed a winning bid of ₹211.14 crore in 2021.
On 29 January 2026, Pawan Hans placed an order for 10 Dhruv NG with deliveries by 2027. Over 28 planned. Four to be operated on behalf of ONGC for 10 years. Most of their fleet is based at the company-owned Rohini Heliport located north west of New Delhi.
From Wikipedia’s article on Pawan Hans, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5