HELICENTRE Liverpool has been bought for a “significant” sum by a three-strong consortium.

The centre, based at Liverpool John Lennon Airport, is a helicopter flight training school and offers charter services.

It has been sold by former managing director Andrea Brown, who has run the company since 2002.

The new Helicentre consortium includes Andrew Tyrer, a director of Wrexham-based ice pop manufacturer Mr Freeze.

Captain Jon Rayner, who has over 10,000 hours rotary flying experience, will become managing director while Captain Guy Cowper, who has 25 years experience flying commercially in both aircraft and helicopters, will be sales and marketing director.

Capt Jon Rayner said: “This is an exciting opportunity for the Helicentre to further expand our operations and customer services.

“I am looking forward to continuing to work with our existing staff as we start this new phase of our development.”

The Helicentre offers a full range of private, commercial and flight instructor training for helicopters and says it had a 100% pass rate for its commercial pilot licence.

The centre, which started in 1995 and employs 15 staff, trains 100 students a year at Liverpool.

It operates a fleet of three Schweizers, four Robinson R44 Raven II and two Robinson R 22.