Offshore UK Helicopter Demand
 

Hi,

I'm undertaking a project looking at the safety of offshore oil and gas related helicopter operations in the UK. As part of the study I'm look at the number of daily operations. It would be greatly appreciated if anyone could share their expertise regarding the following questions;

1.) Typically how many flights can one aircraft complete in one day in the UK? Is it one out and back sortie or more?

2.) What is the typical utilisation rate of the seats on a helicopter? Are they generally full? What would be the average utilisation in terms of %?

3.) How many offshore helicopter operations are associated with crew changes vs. supply runs?

4.) How many helicopters would be required to serve an offshore drilling rig (not a platform)? Would you need one per drilling rig? or fewer than one?

4.) How many helicopters would be required to serve a large (100 POB+) platform? Would you need one per platform? or fewer than one?

5.) How many days flight days are there per week in the UK? Are crew changes completed Monday to Sunday? or Monday to Friday and not at the weekend?

Thanks in advance for your help,

best,

Landers.

Good luck with this one!!!

Landers

I am really trying not be be negative, but if you don't know some of this very basic information, then I really don't think that your "project" will have or can have much credibility.

Check out this website below. You could reverse engineer the data to get an idea of the current support data.


Bristow Passenger Services ? Check Flight Status - bristowgroup.com

Landres,

I came across this information today and thought you might help you.

The offshore oil and gas industry could not operate efficiently without
helicopters. There are currently 228 helideck-equipped fixed installations
and approximately 50-100 mobile helidecks in the UK. The industry core
workforce (those spending 100+ nights per year offshore) in 2012 was
25,760. As a measure of related helicopter activity, in the same year, just over 141,000 sectors were flown, consuming 86,000 flight hours and over a million passengers were carried. The majority of these passengers would be those flying regularly as part of their shift pattern.

Three UK helicopter companies operate approximately 95 aircraft in support
of the exploitation of oil and gas around the UK: Bristow Helicopters Ltd;
Bond Offshore Helicopters Ltd; and CHC Scotia Ltd. The main operating bases
are: Aberdeen; Sumburgh; Scatsta; Norwich; North Denes; Humberside; and
Blackpool. Three other UK helicopter companies regularly operate to offshore
locations on a much smaller scale in support of renewable energy projects and
marine navigation facilities.

Thank you all so much for your help. I have followed the links provided and found some useful information.

terminus mos - apologies for my lack of experience. If the questions are so simple would you care to share some of your insight? It would be much appreciated.

Thanks again,

Landers.

Landers,

The UK CAA has just recently completed and published a complete review of North Sea helicopter operations, and safety thereof. It is available via the CAA website and what you are looking for is "CAP 1145".

I suggest you spend some time with this document in its entirety.

Don't be surprised if people are a little defensive in the forum about your subject matter interests, some are getting a bit tired of these ad hoc trawls, by un-credentialled individuals, for use in a document/publication they are unlikely to see, or be credited with, in supplying information.

The credibility of your own research, may well appear a little "sus" if you're just going to be basing it on snippets gleaned from a free-form, public access, internet forum.

Kind regards.

BS