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Well then, perhaps there should be...? Or does Statoil's interest in safety not extend quite so far as to carry that extra cost...?
22
Perhaps there should be, but that is another debate. Perhaps then you are back to the beginning, where the whole issue is solved by using in-house instructors. Why use third party training organisations then double your costs by addressing all the shortfalls with costly aircraft training sorties and having to buy extra aircraft and increase the burden on the operations dept and technical department, when there is a better solution. It is not as easy as just taking a machine out for a 2 hr sortie. All machines are closely budgeted for and maintenance planned for months and years in advance. One extra aircraft requires far more than just the initial purchase. The running costs are constant. The aircraft has to commercially pay for itself by flying as many commercial trips as possible within the maintenance schedule. You are talking millions of dollars per aircraft per year, not small change. Spare aircraft do not exist. The customer pays for the number of aircraft they need for the contract and not for extra training aircraft. I do not know what the current price of an S92 or 225 is but enough that it would be financially disadvantageous to any company to just have them sitting around. That is if you could even get hold of an S92 right now.
The operators generally do not own the aircraft, so have little say in how many they have to operate as they are usually leased. They simply cannot afford nor need to have more than required and the reality is the current level D simulators are more than adequate for training given appropriately qualified instructors and training plans, so aircraft training sorties are really not required.