Bristow takes over operation of Sligo search-and-rescue helicopter base

The base transitioned at a minute past midnight yesterday to Bristow from CHC, making it the third of four search-and-rescue bases in Ireland that are now operated by the Irish arm of the stock market-listed US firm.

It already operates the bases out of Dublin’s Weston Airport, as well as Shannon. It will take over the base at Waterford from CHC on February 1 next year.

Bristow Ireland director Philip Bartlett said 32 crew members from the Sligo base have now joined Bristow, with crews having decamped to ­Aberdeen for training on the company’s ­Leonardo AW189 helicopters.

A transition crew is currently manning the Sligo base until those staff members have been trained.

CHC used Sikorsky S-92 helicopters. Bristow has six AW189s in Ireland and also provides two fixed-wing aircraft for the search-and-rescue operation here.

The Sligo base was initially meant to transfer to Bristow in February this year. That was later moved to April and then to this month.

Any operation of this complexity is going to have some challenges

Bristow won the 10-year €800m contract from the government to operate Ireland’s search-and-rescue service in 2023. It resulted in legal battles by CHC against both the government and Bristow.

“Any operation of this complexity is going to have some challenges,” Mr Bartlett said. “The single factor was to have a seamless, as well as safe, transition from one operator to another.

“So all the stakeholders that have been engaged – the Department of Transport, the Coast Guard, ourselves and the incumbent – to work to ensure that happened.”

The bases at Sligo and Shannon are typically the busiest search-and-rescue bases given the nature of the tougher weather conditions experienced off the west coast.

Bristow Ireland continues to liaise with unions regarding some issues related to its search-and-rescue service.

Last week, Mr Bartlett and the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association (Ialpa) separately attended the joint Oireachtas Transport Committee.

The union insisted that search-and-rescue pilots face “unfair and unsafe” working-time practices and urged the Government to intervene.

Ialpa said that a practice called factoring means that a 24-hour shift may actually be recorded as a 16.5-hour shift. Search-and-rescue crews with Bristow are required to support the 24-hour operation of bases.

We do have a very good and professional relationship with the unions

Bristow told the committee that between 10pm and 8am, its crews are on 45-minute readiness to launch, as opposed to 15 minutes during daytime hours.

“If crew rest and sleep are not interrupted – if there is no call-out during these hours — then 16.5 hours are logged for the shift in accordance with the regulation. If they are called out during stand-by hours, then the full 24 hours are logged,” it noted.

Mr Bartlett said he does not expect the issue to compromise the search-and-rescue service.

“We do have a very good and professional relationship with the unions,” he said, adding that the company had worked with the three relevant unions from the beginning of the takeover process.

He said Bristow Ireland now has three collective agreements with the unions.

“From our perspective, we’re openly engaged in on-going routine discussions with the unions,” he added.