Picture the moment. The hangar door rolls up, and behind it, lit from below on the tarmac, sits an Airbus A-Star luxury helicopter with the Scottsdale sky going gold behind it. Your team is holding drinks. Nobody is looking at their phone. Somebody says out loud, “wait, are we flying tonight?”
Yes. All of you are.
Every December, companies across the Phoenix Valley book the same handful of resort ballrooms, order the same plated chicken, and hope the band carries the night. Your people have been to that party. They have been to it eight times. If this is the year you want the holiday party your team is still quoting back to you in March, the answer sits in a private hangar at Scottsdale Airpark, and the December calendar for it starts filling right about now.
Why a Working Hangar Beats a Ballroom for a Company Holiday Party
A ballroom is a neutral container. It works, it is forgettable, and everyone knows it the moment they walk in. A working helicopter hangar is the opposite. It has scale, hard industrial texture, and an aircraft parked in the middle of it. The room does half the work before your first guest has a drink.
Our hangar at Scottsdale Airpark is privately owned, which matters more than it sounds. There is no other event down the hall, no shared lobby, no competing music, no banquet manager moving you along because another group needs the room at ten. For your event, the building is yours. Your group. Our hangar. That is the whole idea.
How the H5 Hangar Group Experience Actually Runs
The format is what makes this work at company scale. Guests rotate through short helicopter flights over the Valley in small groups while everyone else enjoys the hangar. No line, no dead air, no ninety minutes of people waiting their turn.
We get roughly twelve to fifteen guests airborne every hour, and we handle groups from ten up to about 60 participants in a few hour time frame. Each flight is a genuine experience rather than a token lap: a mix of city skyline and open Sonoran Desert, with Camelback and the McDowells on one side and the Valley grid running to the horizon on the other. In December, an early evening rotation catches sunset and then the city lights, and the energy in the hangar climbs every single time a group walks back in.
Between flights, guests have full use of the hangar. Lounge with the music going, walk through the vintage and muscle car collection, run whatever group activities you have planned. The package covers the venue and the flying, coordinated as one event by our team.
The Reveal: Hangar Doors, the Tarmac, and a Scottsdale December
The best design feature of this venue is one no ballroom can copy. The large hangar doors roll up. Planners use that for reveals: doors closed through cocktails, then open for the CEO’s remarks with the aircraft and the desert sky behind them. Or leave them open all evening and let the party spill onto the tarmac, which in December in Scottsdale is genuinely the best room in the building.
That is the quiet advantage of a December date here. While most of the country is negotiating with weather, a Scottsdale evening sits comfortable and clear, and the indoor outdoor party actually works.
Making It Yours: Food, Drinks, and Your Logo on the Aircraft
The H5 Hangar Group Experience covers the venue and the flights. Food, beverage, and activities are yours to bring, which is a feature rather than a limitation. Bring the caterer your people actually like. Bring the taco truck. Bring your own bar, your own playlist, your own awards ceremony, your own white elephant chaos. We are not upselling you a banquet menu.
If you would rather have it coordinated, we build events custom and can fold in food and beverage service, music, and entertainment. We can also put your company logo on the aircraft, which is the single most underrated thing on this page. Every photo your team takes that night, and there will be hundreds, has your brand on a helicopter in it.
For Planners and DMCs Booking December in Scottsdale
If you are a destination management company or corporate planner building a December program, the practical notes are these.
We are at 16114 N 81st Street in the Scottsdale Airpark, minutes from the North Scottsdale resort corridor and the convention venues, with straightforward access for motorcoach transfers. We work regularly with event planners, DMCs, and incentive travel companies across corporate group experiences, team building, convention and conference excursions, client hosting, and incentive travel programs. We are comfortable slotting in as the marquee evening of a longer agenda, and we customize each event from concept through execution.
Flying is weather and daylight dependent, so a strong agenda builds the rotation around the light rather than around dinner service. We will help you build that schedule. Our season runs from fall into spring, one aircraft means an evening’s rotation is finite, and December dates are the ones that go first, so groups that lock in early get the format they want.
Some clients pair the party with recognition flights. A Mountain Top Landing for a top performer and their guest, landing on a private summit above the lakes, or our Grand Canyon Experience as a President’s Club reward. Both land differently than a gift card, and we have flown award winners on exactly this kind of trip.
You are working with a veteran owned, family run operation flying from this Airpark since 2008. Mitch and Steve carry more than fifty five combined years in the cockpit with a perfect safety record, and our aerial filming clients include Apple TV, Netflix, National Geographic, IMAX, Discovery, Travel Channel, and Red Bull. The pilots flying your guests are the same ones who fly those productions.
Questions Planners Ask Before They Book
How many people can you handle for a company holiday party?
Groups from ten to about 250 per day, depending on the flow. Guests fly in small rotating groups, and we get roughly twelve to fifteen people airborne per hour.
Does everyone actually get to fly?
Yes, that is the point of the rotation format. Flights are private, run continuously through the event, and carry up to five passengers within an 850 pound total passenger weight limit, lower on certain flights.
Is catering included, or do we bring our own?
The package covers the venue and the flights. You bring your own food, drinks, and activities, or we can help coordinate food and beverage, music, and entertainment as part of a custom build.
When should we book a December date?
As early as possible. Valley holiday dates get claimed in September and October, and we have one hangar and one aircraft, so December fills before the rest of the calendar does.
If you want the holiday party your team is still talking about at the spring all hands, start with the H5 Hangar Group Experience. Call (480) 272-1100 or email info@h5helicopters.com to check December availability, walk the hangar, and talk through what your evening should look like.
H5 Helicopters, private hangar at Scottsdale Airpark, 16114 N 81st Street, Scottsdale, Arizona.