Last Bristow AW139 to Leave Tanzania
The last of 3 Bristow AW139s in Tanzania is due to leave this month. The machine is the last of 3 helicopters leased to Tanzanian operator Everett Aviation for its Statoil contract which was terminated last year when Statoil announced an early withdrawal from Tanzania because of the falling oil price. The remaining machine was the SAR aircraft which I believe was on a separate contract.
It'll be interesting to see if Bristow repositions the aircraft to UK or sends it to Nigeria after its recent problems with the S76 there. This must also leave Everett Aviation in a difficult position as they went to great expense to build a new hangar and private passenger terminal in Dar es Salaam, though if they can weather the storm they'll be well placed when oil and gas companies return to East Africa.