It's good to read that Nabil (and Mani?) are back with Aero and nothing to do with the maple leaf crowd. Schreiner may not have been the most successful company, but it did fairly well in its long association with Aero and Africa, particularly as many of the managers had a very long association with Africa, understood it and empathised with it. Nabil and Mani are part of that long association and can only improve matters. When CHC arrived in Nigeria you could see the open contempt on their faces and hear it in their voices when they talked of the past and how they were going to be the new broom which swept everything clean
. Nigel was just given a few weeks to quit his desk and be replaced by the Squirrel, all his experience counting for nothing. They couldn't wait to get rid of Mani and how many times has he already been back to sort out the mess the idiots who replaced him made? If not for him they'd have lost several contracts a long time ago
. If only they're able to bring back some of the others who managed to operate helicopters there successfully for over 40 years. It certainly hasn't taken CHC long to make a mess of Nigeria, though I'm actually surprised they haven't come to this stage long before now. Has anyone heard what has been decided about the future of CHC in Nigeria? I guess it doesn't matter too much as with all the problems in that country, the major oil companies are shifting the focus of their big investments in Africa to Angola as evidenced by the opening day of the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston:
OTC Opening Day
It's surprising that a company as large as Bristow has nothing in Angola, but CHC, Chevron and the French seem to have that sewn up. Bristow is not without its problems in Nigeria from what friends tell me. Is SAGS staying on beyond 65? If not their problems will get much worse as they don't seem to have put anyone in training to replace him and Akin's successor isn't nearly the man Akin is. Many friends there would not like to join CHC (but if they go and someone else takes over Aero, a few could be persuaded), but they're not happy with the way Bristow is going. In all fairness, that could be due just as much to the security situation causing them all to be imprisoned as anything. However, they complain of being kept more in the dark than ever, lousy housing and food (especially in Lagos and Eket), pathetic allowances and flying old, clapped-out rattletraps (especially the old 412s and A++s). Nobody seems to have been told who their new MD will be, though it's widely rumoured he'll be another accountant with no previous knowledge of aviation. Doubtless he'll be another new blade making a thousand small cuts to improve his profitability bonus
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