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The company, which only emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March, this week announced it has added three new Leonardo AW189s and two Airbus H175s from Milestone Aviation Group's order book with the manufacturers to CHC's global fleet.
Milestone CEO Daniel Rosenthal said his group had worked with CHC since its restructuring to review the fleet needs and provide both the aircraft and capital solutions, through operating lease and debt financing, that meet those needs.
"We are delighted to deliver these new technology assets that fit their mission profile with improved economics for their end customers," Rosenthal said.
Both the Leonardo AW189 and the Airbus H175 are designed to meet long-range, high endurance requirements in demanding environments, which will allow CHC to use them for missions that have either been traditionally limited to heavy aircraft or access platforms that are not designed to support them.
This will give oil and gas operators both in Australia and the North Sea additional flexibility and help them lower overall costs per passenger.
CHC's Perth-based regional director Asia Pacific Vince D'Rosario told Energy News that its customers had been considering whether to get more bang for their buck from the super medium, which costs less than heavy class crafts but are more capable than the medium class.
He said that given these considerations, the super medium "fits that happy gap, and depending on the mission requirements".
Operator needs
The move came about as Woodside decided it wants some super mediums in its fleet for the LNG producer's North West Shelf operations.
D'Rosario said both the AW189 and H175s were comparable in terms of range and mission.
"We're actually standing up 175s in Europe and 189s in Australia, so I think we'll be one of the few companies flying both in the future," he said.
Babcock has 175s in both East Timor and Australia, while others are offering 189s in Europe, but CHC is believed to be the only aviation outfit going through the challenges of standing up both at the same time.
Engineering support services group Babcock used the launch of its Adelaide headquarters in April to announce a new contract with ConocoPhillips to provide offshore helicopter support services to its Bayu-Undan production operations in the Timor Sea.
For that contract, Babcock has employed two new Airbus H175s to operate out of Dili, East Timor, supported from its Adelaide base.
While CHC CEO Karl Fessenden said the new super mediums would support new customer contracts, D'Rosario said that locally, oil and gas operators are more educated and understanding that they can get more "bang for their buck" through that type of aircraft.
"I don't think the operators' requirements have changed, it's more than the original equipment manufacturers have come out with these products," D'Rosario said.
"The mission requirements are all pretty much the same - the oil and gas platforms are where they are, and when they're a bit further away and you have to take more people, you have to use a heavy like an S92 so you can get the range and weight.
"With the super medium you can get more people on board and get the range of pretty much the heavy. It's driven wholly by the OEMs and the clients have seen them and wanted them, and we as a service provider get them.
"We study it with them in terms of mission capability. If the extra seats helps with their crew changing and all of their logistics, then fair enough."
Fassenden said CHC's fleet productivity had significantly improved since completing its restructuring in March, and now matches its historical peak levels before the oil and gas downturn.
