Average Helicopter Fleet Age - GOM
 

Hi ALL,
With Helicopter Sales at record highs and wait lists for new machines now in excess of 2 years surely the fleet average age working the G.O.M has been reduced significantly.
Does anyone have any stats as to what the present age of the Offshore Fleet amongst the larger players is now and what is it likely to be say in 5 years from now???
Thanks in advance,
RC

No actual stats, but there is still a significant number of 20,000 hr ships in the GOM. The average age is certainly decreasing, and in 5 years it should be much better than it is now. It seems the main reason for the old models being still there is the inability of the manufacturers to turn out new equipment quickly enough. Every operator I know of is buying new equipment and getting rid of the really old stuff as replacements become available. The oil companies are making more profits than they can spend, and are throwing money around like never before, so now is the time to get new equipment.

There certainly has been an improvement over the last few years. It actually looks a little weird at first adding up time in the aircraft logbook and it is under a thousand, compared to 15, 16 thousand.