Maverick Helicopters, based in Las Vegas, announced plans to buy an additional 10 Eurocopter EC 130B4s for its air-tour operations in Las Vegas; the Grand Canyon; Sedona, Ariz.; and “anywhere else in the U.S. that a customer wants to fly,” Greg Rochna, Maverick president and CEO, told HAI Convention News.

“Although most of our flights are within three hours of Las Vegas, we once flew a couple on a three-day cross-country from Montreal to Las Vegas in one of our EC 130s. It would have taken two days, but they wanted to stay another night in Steamboat Springs,” he said. “The trip cost $39,000.”

Maverick currently operates 20 EC 130s, which Rochna has nicknamed “Eco Stars” because it is one of the few helicopters that can meet Grand Canyon noise restrictions. Though a Eurocopter release quoted John Buch, Maverick vice president of sales and marketing, saying that the company’s goal is to have 50 EC 130s by the end of 2010, Rochna said he’d like a fleet of 100, if only Eurocopter could deliver them. The company began in 1995 operating AStars, but now operates only EC 130s. Its fleet of 20 has flown more than 37,000 hours.

Maverick requires new-hire pilots to have a minimum of 1,500 flight hours and puts them through its own Eurocopter-approved training school.