Babcock Mission Critical Services Offshore is preparing to return two AgustaWestland AW139 helicopters to lessor Era Helicopters.  Registered G-PERA and G-PERB were imported to the UK in full Era colours in March 2011, and shortly after were repainted to the traditional red Bond Offshore Helicopters scheme – as the company was known at that time.  After nearly six years of operation, they have now been repainted back into Era Helicopters colours in preparation for their return – something that Andy Puhala (Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Era Group) confirmed to us at the Helicopter Investor conference in London yesterday.  G-PERA is ready immediately and we understand that export from the UK is imminent.  Babcock have indicated to us that G-PERB will follow a little later and they have in mind some further North Sea flights for it, although we note it has not done a rig flight since 11th December.

The pair were repainted at East Midlands Airport by Airbourne Colours, arriving there on 3rd and 4th January.  The job was completed within two weeks and they were both ferried on completion to Norwich on 16th January for the final export paperwork and any de-configuration required to return the helicopters to their owner in the correct state.

The photo below of G-PERB arriving back at Norwich is © Copyright 2017 Kevin Hudson, and reproduced here with his permission

Jeremy Parkin – HeliHub.com