"Dropping rates and going for volume". Isn't that exactly what BIH has been doing for the past five or six years! It is this type of silly tenderring for contracts that has resulted in the North Sea operators having to cut costs and overheads. In some areas this has been no bad thing, but in others it has resulted in a reduction of inward investment. This does not only include lack of money toward new airframes, but also and argueably more importantly, investment in propper maintainance, and a reduction in safetey margins!
At a time when Oil companies have been posting record profits, is it not time that the operators had something to show for it other than lower rates. The demise of BIH at a time of high demand for helicopter services on the North Sea would not result in fewer jobs, they would simply transfer to a different company. A fact bourne out by those taken on by Britows when KLM folded! If BIH have to go in order that the rates are increased then sobeit!