I guess nothing's happening in Africa at the moment then?
I hear that a lot of the Antipodeans working for CHC/ACN in Nigeria are less than happy with their travel arrangements and are looking to leave. Guess that will make ACN have pilot shortage problems all over again. These could be made worse because new operator Caverton will undoubtedly poach staff from the other operators. They seem at last to be getting some kind of act together and it's rumored that their A109 could even arrive before the end of the year!! Haven't heard of many pilots interested in working for them yet though - maybe because they decided to pay their expats staff in $US, or because it's taken them over 2 years to even get 1 helicopter close to up and running?
There are also quite strong rumors that CHC will be closing down most of the Schreiner facilities in Hoofddorp, Holland, and transferring them to Aberdeen to their new operations centre. This will probably cause them quite a few problems as Dutch unions are not reknowned for giving up without a good fight - watch this space!!
Another rumor doing the rounds of Schreiner staff overseas is that those working in Africa will be transferred to the control of CHC Africa, be administered from South Africa, and will have no pay rises until their pay is as low as that of other CHC Africa operations (currrently a basic of around US$3500 a month). There are persistent denials by management, which are just as persistently not believed by the staff, epecially after the debacle over the changes to the way their tax is handled! As they have a lot of management staff, maybe there will be fewer of them around to make the denials in future! Expect to see further bail outs from all those worried about their pay and future.
Shell are also rumored to be thinking of pulling out of onshore operations in Nigeria and this is causing a number of OLOG/Bristow pilots to worry about their jobs.
Not altogtether a happy or secure scene at the moment
