10 Jan, 20,
At one time, Bristow Group had a total of 22 Airbus H175s on order.
Here’s the timeline of the announcements
- 2013 – an initial order of “up to 12”, which turned out to be 5 when you read the 2015 release
- 2015 – increased by 12 in 2015, a further five were then added in 2017 – “raised its total firm orders” …. “to 17
- 2017 – five more added
In their recently filed their latest 10-Q quarterly report with the United States federal Securities and Exchange Commission, Bristow had the following text:-
“On May 1, 2019, we entered into an amendment to our agreement with Airbus Helicopters S.A.S. for the purchase of 22 H175 helicopters, which includes five aircraft that can be cancelled by us prior to the delivery dates. Pursuant to the amendment, the parties mutually agreed to postpone the delivery dates for such helicopters for 18 months from the previous schedule, with the first three helicopters now scheduled for delivery in the second half of fiscal year 2022. The postponement in deliveries resulted in various amendments to the payment terms under the purchase agreement including the deferral of approximately $110.0 million in capital expenditures scheduled for fiscal years 2019 to 2023 into fiscal years 2024 and beyond. In connection with this amendment, the overall purchase price of these helicopters increased by $18.4 million to account for inflation.
On September 30, 2019, the Debtors filed a motion with the Bankruptcy Court to approve a settlement agreement with Airbus Helicopters S.A.S. in regards to the rejection of the purchase contract for 22 H175 helicopters.
On October 3, 2019, the Bankruptcy Court entered an order approving the agreement with Airbus Helicopters S.A.S. to reject our aircraft purchase contract for the 22 H175 helicopters.”
So, no H175s for Bristow, and a big hole in Airbus’ H175 backlog.
The HeliHub.com database shows the following current H175 operators with a global active fleet of 38 helicopters
- Babcock Mission Critical Services, Australia/UK – 6, including one still on long-term retrofit work by Airbus
- CHC, UK – 4
- Government Flying Service, Hong Kong – 7
- Heli Holland, Netherlands – 1
- NHV, Belgium/Denmark/UK – 13
- Royal Thai Police, Thailand – 2
- Pegaso, Mexico – 2
- UTair, Russia – 1 (leased back to Airbus as a demonstrator)
- VIP customers – 2 (not named by Airbus, but known to HeliHub.com )
There is an additional production line in China run by AVIC, where the H175 is known as the AC352. Only 1 has been built on this line, despite an apparent signature for 1,000, yes, 1,000.
Airbus also has a number of development and trials airframes.
Jeremy Parkin – HeliHub.com
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