Chopperpunter,
Methinks you have misheard the statement about helis versus other costs. The truth is that helis do constitute 'a drop in the ocean' compared to the companies overall transport costs, not to the cost of overall production. This was stated to me by a senior Shell rep; helis were approximately 2% of their transport costs. How this affects individual rigs has been changed by the oil companies given the OIMs responsibilty for their budgets, and not keeping it centralized.
Autoland: Yes, this has been available to fixed-wing for decades, a form of this has also been available for helis; the only problem being that the CAA do not allow it's use below the published minima for a given approach, so if you don't see the lights/runway at the given height, away you go!
