EC175 Operational

摘要

The NHV Group - a helicopter services provider for the oil and gas industries, based at Oostende in Belgium -has big ambitions. "We want to become the European helicopter operator of choice [for the sector]," said Steven Igodt, NHV's Business Unit Manager Northern Europe, in an interview with AIR International. And the Airbus Helicopters EC175 is playing a key role in the attempts to reach that goal. NHV was the first to receive the twin-engine medium utility helicopter in December, when two examples from its 16-aircraft order were delivered. They are now operational at NHV's facility at Den Helder in the Netherlands. Six more will be handed over this year and the remaining eight between 2016 and 2018. "The EC175 is mainly used for transportation from onshore to offshore and inter-platform hopping in the North Sea to support the requests of our clients," Igodt explained. Those clients are the major oil and gas production companies. NHV's helicopters (it also operates EC225s, EC155B1s, AS332L2s and AS365 N3 Dauphins and AgustaWestland AW139s) are used to fly these firms' personnel to, from and between rigs and for ad-hoc missions to deliver supplies and equipment offshore.