The UK Department for Transport (DfT) has awarded a £1.6bn contract to Bristow Helicopters to provide civilian search-and-rescue (SAR) helicopter services nationwide, ending 70 years of operations from mainly the RAF and Royal Navy.
The SAR services contract includes a phased-in transition period starting in April 2015 and continuing until July 2017, and a contract period of about ten years.
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Under the terms of the agreement, Bristow will provide 11 Sikorsky S-92 and 11 AgustaWestland AW189 helicopters that will be located at ten bases across the UK.
Each SAR base will operate either two S-92s or two AW189s.
In addition to 20 rotorcraft at ten bases, there will be two SAR-equipped training aircraft that will be deployed to any base as required.
UK Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said: "Our search-and-rescue helicopter service plays a crucial role, saving lives and providing assistance to people in distress on both land and on sea."
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By GlobalDataThe DfT stated that the new helicopters would be able to reach a larger area of the UK search-and-rescue region within one hour of takeoff, while the overall improvement in flying times to incidents is expected to be around 20% (from 23 to 19 minutes).
Currently around 70% of high and very high risk areas within the UK search-and-rescue region are reachable by helicopter within 30 minutes.
With the new rotorcraft, approximately 85% of the same area would be reached within this timeframe, DfT said.
The new SAR contract will be managed by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, similar to the existing contract that operates the coastguard helicopter bases on the south coast and on the Western and Shetland Isles.
Around half of the new fleet will be assembled in Yeovil and the contract will have a significant impact on the UK supply chain, providing and sustaining jobs and apprenticeships.
However, the deal has proved controversial, with team leader of Cairngorm mountain rescue team Willie Anderson expressing concerns.
"The difficulty I have about privatisation is that somewhere down the road someone will have one eye on the casualty and the other eye on the balance sheet," he said.
Bristow Helicopters, a UK affiliate of Bristow Group, expects revenues of approximately $2.5bn from the new SAR contract.
The company provides helicopter services to the offshore energy industry, and it is one of two helicopter service providers to the offshore energy industry with global operations.
Image: The AW189 is a multirole, twin-engine helicopter designed by AgustaWestland. Photo: courtesy of AgustaWestland.
