R, W & B sums N Denes up nicely but the long term future of the place is far from secure.
Last year I understand, CHC were going to build a hard runway to replace the current grass facility, but have now decided not to as it's not an economically viable project.
The construction of the new heliport/terminal at Norwich starts in March/April, it will be big enough to accomodate all of the Bristow AND CHC current and future contracts.
The Perenco contract lost by CHC, oddly enough, went to..... Norwich, it's been operated by a Belgian company with 2 AS365s seperately from the Bristow Operation with every indication that it's there for at least 5 years.
I doubt that mant of they rig workers "enjoy" having to go to North Denes rather than Norwich, in fact I'd wager that it's only those who live in the Yarmouth/Lowestoft area who see it as an advantage, the majority of the rest fly into Norwich anyway, so who wants to do that and then have a 30 mile journey to Yarmouth.
As far as weather and landing aids are concerned, there's simply no contest, Norwich has far better facilities and a far better weather record than Denes, a factor which all offshore customers look very closely at, although I do accept that painting the top of the lamposts on the road adjacent to Denes Rwy 26 approach dayglow orange is a unique idea and should be in the top ten for approach light replacements.
Denes does have it's own ATC service, but this is an extremely expensive luxury.
If CHC were at Norwich, the cost of the ATC/Navigational service charges would be significantly less than employing individual ATCOs at Denes.
The one thing Denes has going for it is that CHC own everything, including the smell of the dog crap which wafts over from time to time. They spend as little cash as possible on the place and keep it to the standards which will muster a pass by the CAA.
Good enough for CHC and this all leads to reduced costs in the short term, but when there are established and much better facilities elsewhere, which are also being improved, such as Norwich and Humberside, it seems ineviatable that CHC will be told by their customers that they have to operate from elsewhere or lose out to other companies.