Oh no not agiain! Meantobe you should try and stop droning on about your prejudices about Bond. For starters you and others seem to be assuming its Bond that were 20% cheaper whereas its more likely to be Bristow given their size and great financial conditon, plus their enormous S92 fleet with 28 more on order has to put them in a good place. That smacks of a good starting point for being cheap not all this dribble about Bond or anyone trying to hire very professional aircrew at nonesense salaries. Get real people and look a bit deeper before mouthing off please! There were 3 Lots being bid according to the DfT website, and CHC were biddig all 3 of them according to the last selection process. So CHC seem to have blown it big time if they couldn't get the price right to survive in at least one of those Lots.
Jim671 is right IMO. 139 is history.
Crab: even if the military was still organising a replacement they too would have a price ceiling wouldn't they? Especially these days. When has the military bought stuff on the basis of "dream up the best solution and then pay for it whatever the cost" - your nievity (sp?) is stunning Crab but perhaps not surprising if you have spent too much time being a Crab SAR pilot. So your constant mantra about the commercial run service always stooping to the lowest price is just utter crap. Your vast experience of the commercial aviation world really puts you in a strong position on that one (NOT)!
Happy Christmas Everyone! My CV is off to Bristow for what its worth
