Created in 2005 and enhanced in 2011, Deline Helicopters is a majority Aboriginal-owned and controlled joint-venture partnership operating in the Deline District of the NWT’s Sahtu region.
Based in Deline, its ownership group includes Techi?q, a subsidiary of the Deline Land Corporation, which holds 80% of the company and minority owner Great Slave Helicopters. Great Slave Helicopters conducts all flight operations for this partnership.
As the only Aboriginal-owned helicopter company in the Deline District, Deline Helicopters is well-positioned to meet the needs of companies and organizations involved in infrastructure planning and development, wildlife surveys, search and rescue missions, mineral exploration, as well as oil and gas industry activity given its proximity to the proposed Mackenzie Gas Project and the Mackenzie Valley Highway route.
Deline Helicopters is under the leadership of representatives of Techi?q and Great Slave Helicopters. Under the Sahtu Dene and Metis Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement business and contracting opportunities in the Deline District are to give preference to Aboriginal-owned businesses based in Deline. As a majority Aboriginal-owned company, Deline Helicopters should always be considered as a preferred supplier by companies or organizations requiring contract rotary-wing services within the in the Deline District of the Sahtu Region.
Deline Helicopters is also a huge supporter of minor hockey in the community. More than 185 years ago Deline was the birthplace of ice hockey. Only discovered by researchers in 2003, a reference to hockey was included in the papers of Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin, who mentioned in a letter that his men played hockey on Great Bear Lake when they wintered in the area in 1825 – the earliest documented record of the sport being played anywhere in the world.