British based operator Bond is finally rebranding its operations to the corporate image of parent company Babcock today.  This is just short of two years since the announcement mid May 2014 that engineering support services company Babcock International Group PLC officially completed its acquisition of the Avincis Group.

All aspects of Bond in the UK are being rebranded, both the offshore fleet with Bond Offshore Helicopters and the onshore fleet under the Bond Air Services banner.  While today – Monday 25th April – is the date of the legal name change, it will be some months before everything from helicopters and signage to uniforms will finally all feature the Babcock name and brand – although the signage at the base at Gloucestershire Airport was sorted on Friday 22nd – see below.

In the last couple of weeks, some of the Bond offshore fleet have started to lose their Bond titles, ready for the change including at least two Sikorsky S92s G-VINF and G-VINP, and two EC225 G-REDR and G-REDT – one of each is seen below.

From a company name point of view, the changes (which all went through on Friday 22nd) are as follows

• Bond Aviation Group Ltd. to Babcock Mission Critical Services UK Ltd.
• Bond Air Services Ltd. to Babcock Mission Critical Services Onshore Ltd.
• Bond Offshore Helicopters Ltd to Babcock Mission Critical Services Offshore Ltd.
• Bond Helicopters Europe Ltd. to Babcock Mission Critical Services Design and Completions Ltd.
• International Aviation Leasing Ltd. to Babcock Mission Critical Services Leasing Ltd.

From an ATC point of view, we understand that the “Bond” callsign and “BND” flight prefix are being retained due to the cost of changing it with ICAO.

Jeremy Parkin – HeliHub.com

© 2016 Graeme Lovell for HeliHub.com

© 2016 Graeme Lovell for HeliHub.com