At last Caverton Helicopters is advertising for helicopter pilots in Flight. They still have no helicopters in Nigeria and contacts say that all they have so far is 2 Agusta 109Es which are still in Europe. It looks as if the S76 in their advert is just a 'fishing expedition' for possible future expansion. Their hangar at MM Airport looks really big (maybe for planned fixed wing expansion in competition withy ACN?), but their downtown heliport has a way to go yet.
I hear that the Chief Pilot has not yet arrived here and has never been to Nigeria. I'm sure he'll find that he is most welcome and that it's not a bad place to be, despite some of the previous stories here on Prune.
It will be interesting to see if Caverton can match the salaries and leave schedules being offered by Bristow and Aero if they only have 2 helicopters which will not be on contract, but having to earn their keep on the short run between VI and MM airport. ACN are still recruiting and are offering 6/6 contracts paid in euro and Bristow also have to replace the pilots they laid off at Eket after the Exxon/Mobil age ruling. They are offering 7/5 contracts which pay a bit more than ACN. Both Bristow/OLOG and ACN operate exclusively on oil company contracts so to a great extent their pilots are paid for in advance. It will be interesting to see if a wholly Nigerian company can compete against 2 major worldwide operators in terms of pay, conditions and long-term job security. It will also, undoubtedly be interesting to see if the Agusta 109 can stay serviceable in Africa and even more, whether it is able to carry the volumes of baggage which Nigerian business passengers connecting with international flights will undoubtedly want to carry. I hear that there has been a lot of overt hostility to their operation from Aero, possibly because they see them as more of a threat than Bristow in the long term (because of Aero's fixed wing operations, and possibly some professional jealousy that they didn't think of the idea of setting up a shuttle service between MM and VI first).
I'm sure that over the next few months their operations will start and it is to be hoped that for once a Nigerian company will be here to stay unlike the previous efforts of Okada and Stillwater and the lack of any growth of Southern Air. I'm sure that most of us will wish them good luck and be happy that their arrival will herald an expansion in the jobs market in Nigeria.