Don't listen to glom merchants saying Shell is cancelling the AW139, they know it is a helicopter with great potential for the future. Soon Caverton will have delivery of its first AW139. Yes this helo has had many initial problems, but tell me one on the oil patch which hasn't. It is modern and the future, unlike the S76 whose new model is the D (or dead duck
). Caverton has recently employed some pilots who were Bristow in the old days on Shell but now has experience of operating AW139 in the Middle east. Also we have an agreement with Gulf Helicopters (whose operations director was also Bristow) and Nigerian pilots are already on loan to them building experience ready for AW139 operations start up.
Caverton will soon also start to take over the fixed wing operations in Cameroon and Chad from CHC and Captain Charles, our deputy Ops Manager will be going to run it. He was there before flying both fixed and rotary wing for Schreiner so knows the area and the operation very well
Bristow had a wonderful bonus scheme (scheming was involved a lot in bonus award
) which has upset lots of people. I heard one expatriate copilot even was awarded $1500 for loyalty even though he left the company and only just came back a few months (even tough the rules for bonus were min 1 year with the company). Wonder which country he was from
.
Aero will soon have more helicopters on contract and will soon be operating EC135s for NNPC. Just wait and see how in 2 or 3 years it will be Caverton and Aero who is dominating the helicopter market in Nigeria. This is the new story people, the birth and early years of a truly Nigerian helicopter industry