Well, Bristow and CHC may have given broadly similar pay rises but in Port Harcourt at least it seems there are a few differences for management. Bristow managers ride around in the same mini vans as all the other pilots going to work and live in the same housing. For CHC it seems things are getting much harder for their managers. The journey to work from their luxury housing is now so difficult they need new SUVs to get to work. It's entirely due to the state of the roads and the rainy season of course
. Meanwhile, building the new luxury staff house for everybody else doesn't seem to have started yet - rumors of a new staff compound somewhere in the bush (really nice houses, but such a good deal because of the location
). Naturally the new ramp extension and hangar are going ahead full steam because they need somewhere for the shiny new helicopters. However, the Bristow refusal to change to 6/6 has reportedly caused a big increase in pilots looking to change employers in Nigeria.
In all honesty, things have considerably improved in both companies, but there's still a long, long way to go before it would be worth thinking of leaving a decent job in Europe or North America for Nigeria.