GMIA, if you think badly of the direction the "puppeteers in USA have taken Bristow" what is far worse is the decline in Aero brought about by the arrogant clowns in Richmond and the puppets they tried to instal here in Nigeria. One of them, as mentioned by PW has actually been taken on by Aero!
Until the Aero management bite the bullet and clean their house out they'll find it difficult to stop the decline. As has been stated, Cone Head is a part of the problem and I hope that the new MD is a strong but wise man who is willing to listen to some of those who actually have some experience of the reality of operating in Nigeria. What's not wanted is the sort of 'we know best' attitude which most of the CHC managers had (and still have). It's sad to see the state to which this company has been brought, but it's still not too late to turn the situation around with a change in management attitude and the investment of a lot of time and money
It's important that they maintain customer confidence in their ability to continue to provide a good service, with adequate crews and spares support for the remaining fleet. It's also important that they do something to restore crew morale and stop all the best pilots and engineers deserting. many expatriates here are worried about their future and what it may mean if they have to transfer to Aero and work for a Nigerian company. One of the major problems of working for many Nigerian companies is that of getting paid on time and this will have to be addressed if people are going to think about transferring. Aero themselves will have to do something very positive in this respect as there have been many stories on different threads here about bad experiences working for Nigerian companies such as Capital Aviation, Virgin, Arik and Caverton. Confidence takes a long time to build, but it can be lost overnight.