NHV and Blueway to merge
 

Just announced NHV and Blueway (including Dancopter and Airlift) to merge!


A European group with a strong presence in the Northsea and West African Market!


Ostend, August 28th 2014. NHV and Blueway are pleased to announce that they have signed a merger agreement to create a new top-tier player in the helicopter services industry. Following this transaction, NHV will buy Blueway’s stakes owned by Reiten & Co Capital Partners and Helicopter Transportation Group. The proposed transaction is conditional on receipt of required regulatory approvals, and other customary closing conditions.






NHV and Blueway have striking similarities in activities: strategic presence in the North Sea and West Africa with a focus on the offshore industry and a shared customer base.


Over the last few years, we have formed strategic alliances including: shared hangar facilities in Norwich and Den Helder. These joint efforts have proven to be valuable for both companies. The combination of the two helicopter operators will lead to a strategically better position in the market.


The new group will form a large European-owned helicopter company with approximately 650 employees in several countries across the globe with a combined turnover of more than USD 270 million in 2013.


Our focus for the near future is to maintain and extend our customer base around the North Sea (Norway, Denmark, The Netherlands, Belgium, UK), in France, as well in Africa, starting from our existing bases (Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria).


Our group operates a diverse fleet of 59 helicopters in total (EC225, AS332L2, AS332C, AW139, EC155B1, AS365, EC145, MD Explorer, and AS350) with a solid order book of 19 helicopters (1 EC225, 16 EC175, 2AW139) for the coming 3 years.








http://nhv.be/Images/pdf/PR_NHV140828.pdf

Didn't see that one comming!

RP

Rumors have been there for weeks...... But of course denied from official side :)

I seem to recall from my fledgling days as a budding portrait artist that if you mix yellow, blue, white and red - you end up with a ****ty brown........
:O

Large helicopter operators seem to be the "Bean Counters Delight" in recent times.

I wonder how long it will take for them to drop down to their lowest common denominators..

Two of the fastest growing true European operators joining forces!


Great news, hopefully this will be recognized by the oil industry with some new contracts.

If all is so great why has one been taken over?

Nothing to do with unsustainable pay and conditions?

NHV and Blueway to merge
 

Knowing nhv, must be a good deal! But whatever the reason, still it they become a major player and will challenge the americans in europe and that is great news!

I believe they want to buy the qualities and professionalism of Dancopter, in order to lift them selves to a higher standard.

have you read this......

Air Accidents Investigation: Eurocopter EC155B1, OY-HJJ

and this

http://www.pprune.org/rotorheads/543...ov-2013-a.html

not exactly a shining light of high standards

Let's not forget the pending NHV 365 incident report. That is, if there is going to be a report...

@Lowfat: I'm not tying to defend the latest incident. You can always find weak points, every operator has weak spots. DC haven't had an accident yet.... Most North Sea operators have had their accidents. DC have had a few incidents and thanks to a strong FDM department, they do a lot to improve all the time.

Incident
 

Many operators in the NS have experienced similar incident the last couple of years, but have not reported them. DanCopter was open about this incident; open culture, just culture or no blame culture, call it what you want……..DanCopter and other operators have learned from this incident, which I think is the way forward in order to improve the safety.

Blueway - NHV merge
 

Hopefully it is a story of growth and professionalization!

EC155: reading the incident report I would be very surprised if any other NS operator had such an event and did not report it. No way something like this could have been kept under the hat. So please come forward with information if you do have it. Smearing other operators is not the way to "prove" your loyalty.

.

S76Heavy : please come forward with information if you do have it. Smearing an operator is not the way to "prove" your loyalty.


( Sorry but I could not resist to that one :E.)

I will not make public the information I have received from several mostly ex-NHV pilots about their standards, hours and commercial pressure. I do know, however that several of them have opted to vote with their feet and even though no longer with NHV, I will not give information that may disclose their identity. I am not aware of any DanCopter pilots acting in the same way.

For the record, I am not connected to either side of the merger, nor wish to be. I do, however, have friends on both sides of the fence and I wish them well.

Low fat - are you serious - are you highlighting 2 reports on same INCIDENT - which clearly proves the point that they have an open and just reporting culture?
You probably work for the company which strives for Zero Accidents - because they don't report them - you, sir, are low of something and not just fat!

Don't forget that several ex-Bristow guys work for DC and could spill the beans if they wanted but I guess they voted with their feet instead........it's a small world after all - never say never blah blah ;-)

The first is the actual report the second is the pprune discussion on the report...
cant see your problem?

Did mummy take your Dolly away this morning?

NHV, a privately owned European firm appoint a chairman from one of the world's most disorganized and corrupt organisations: SAGA/ Bollore/ SDV. Not sure I'd shout about that if I was them. They've been sued more times the Donald in Africa. The French Fraud Squad went there last year so hardly a model of a well run business... Good luck!

Sound like similar bedfellows. I wouldn't lose any sleep for NHV.

What happend to the Dancopter pilots in Norwich who were not dismissed - not taken over by CHC, but still out of a job? Did Tupe apply for the pilots, or did they make some kind of agreement with Dancopter or CHC?

T

No idea it just faded away.

I believe all parties settled 'out of court'. The usual non-disclosure agreement was of course insisted upon.

The gifted ones pre-selected to become NHV Norwich lost out on any deal I heard... Karma

Yes, I heard that 4-5 of them got a seat on the 139 in Norwich with NHV, and some got a job in NHV Aberdeen on the 175 with a 5 year bonding. Not sure about the rest, which must be between 7-12 pilots.

Sounds to me that Tupe is not worth a lot when you really need it, since an out of court settlement was made.

Same with the Dancopter pilots in Den Helder working on the Shell contract. Must be between 7-10 pilots who were dismissed without any compensation, after the contract stopped there. Different rules and laws in Netherlands, though....

Tango is right that TUPE can not mean a lot if you are affected. That said, an out of court settlement can be very generous. I was involved in one case when we took approx 50% of potential TUPE staff, the 50% we kept got generous pay rises and the 50% who got made redundant got pretty generous pay offs (in region of 5 months pay after tax). Court was not involved in either of them, but the threat of court made the numbers higher for the recipients of the pay outs.

http://helihub.com/2017/01/30/nhv-wins-uk-based-h175-contract-with-ithaca-energy-contract/

Well done! That's great news for NHV Aberdeen. Hopefully they'll all feel a bit less exposed now they've got another contract.

Their southern colleagues must be going green! It must be nail biting being a one aircraft, one contract base. Stressful with the market flooded with pilots and TUPE proven to be worthless.

Certainly going to be a challenge for them. Hat off to them for winning the work.

150 miles to the ESE, surely they will be limited on payload when you factor in a restrictive CoG and a trip that is minimum 2:10 if you went off to an alternate?

Winter kits been installed on the NHV 175 yet?

LZ

https://www.energyvoice.com/oilandgas/north-sea/132228/helicopter-firm-nhv-secures-contract-beatrice-wind-farm-builder/

NHV said today it would provide flights for Seaway Heavy Lifting (SHL) to support the construction of the £2.6billion Beatrice Offshore Wind farm in the Moray Firth.

The company, which opened a new terminal in Dyce last year, is mounting a challenge to the North Sea’s three main operators, Babcock, Bristow and CHC.

At the end of January, the Ostend-headquartered firm said it had secured a deal with Ithaca Energy to take workers to and from the Harrier development.

Belgian helicopter operator NHV Group has tied up its second North Sea contract in just three weeks.

NHV said today it would provide flights for Seaway Heavy Lifting (SHL) to support the construction of the £2.6billion Beatrice Offshore Wind farm in the Moray Firth.

The company, which opened a new terminal in Dyce last year, is mounting a challenge to the North Sea’s three main operators, Babcock, Bristow and CHC.

At the end of January, the Ostend-headquartered firm said it had secured a deal with Ithaca Energy to take workers to and from the Harrier development.

NHV will start working with SHL on Beatrice in the second quarter of 2017.

The 84 turbine wind farm is expected to power about 450,000 homes and is due to be operational in 2019.

It is a joint venture by SSE, with a 40% share, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners on 35% and Chinese power generation company SDIC with 25%.

SHL and Subsea 7 are working together on the fabrication and installation of jacket foundations and array cables for Beatrice.

Offshore installation activities will be carried out using SHL’s heavy-lift vessels, Stanislav Yudin and Oleg Strashnov.

NHV’s base manager in Aberdeen, Jamie John, hailed the new contract win, which builds on a relationship with SHL that dates back to 2013.

Mr John said: “We are very happy to announce the strengthening of our long standing partnership with SHL and support them in the construction of the new Beatrice Offshore wind farm project.

“Our brand new facilities and aircraft will offer a fantastic platform for them to support their operations in the Moray Firth over the next 18 months.”

NHV declined to provide a contract value.

The operator will hire seven contractors to help its 25-strong team in Dyce cover its increased workload.

It also added a third Airbus H175 helicopter to its fleet in Aberdeen earlier this month, while a fourth is expected to follow later this year.

NHV has used the new-generation aircraft as a selling point in its efforts to secure work.

It has promoted them as a more economic and faster alternative at a time when the choice of helicopters has been limited.

The North Sea has been heavily reliant on Sikorsky S92s since April 2016, when a fatal crash in Norway led to the grounding of Airbus Super Pumas.

NHV plans to increase its fleet of H175s to 16.