Bristow Helicopters To Lay-off Expatriates Pilots By 2015
Tuesday, 01 February 2011 02:16 Ime Akpan, Lagos
The managing director of Bristow Helicopters, Capt. Akin Oni, has said that the company had put a policy in place to replace all its existing expatriate pilots and engineers with Nigerians by 2015.
Capt. Oni who disclosed this yesterday in Lagos at a press conference said the helicopter company had trained some Nigerian pilots overseas who would join the organisation soon.
He stated that the replacement would be done in phases as the training of pilots and engineers to attain professionalism takes about seven years.
“I am proud that today there are eight Nigerians who are coming after their graduation at the college of aviation training in the United States.
We expect to receive them, who have in the last years trained as helicopter pilots; they will be graduating in a couple of weeks. So, in another four weeks, we expect them back in Nigeria,” said Capt. Oni.
However, the managing director said the company would like to do the training in Nigeria, but regretted that the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria has not got the helicopter training school.
He added that there were plans to start helicopter training at NCAT and that “when that happens we will stop the training in the United States.”
Capt. Oni also said that the company was working with the NCAT management to build a hangar at the college.
“At NCAT, we are we are putting money into the classrooms and very soon we expect aeronautical engineers to come in from the United States. We have signed a memorandum of understanding with the college. So there is nothing stopping us from investing in Zaria.
Also the equipment we have been waiting for have arrived in Nigeria and the next thing is the delivery of the equipment to Zaria,” he added.