New Operation Increases Presence Of Strategically Important Base

Oil and gas companies working off the coast of Brazil will benefit from even greater capabilities and capacity after CHC Helicopter’s Brazil unit this week opened a new, much larger hangar for its existing offshore flying operations in Cabo Frio.

BHS (Brazilian Helicopter Services Táxi Aéreo) is a subsidiary of CHC, a global leader in helicopter services and the operating company of CHC Group Ltd. (NYSE:HELI).

The 6,500-square-meter (about 70,000-square-foot) hangar includes significantly expanded facilities for BHS customers and passengers, meets expected long-term needs for aircraft capacity, and allows for advanced maintenance operations. Tomas Salazar, regional director for CHC Americas, said that the Cabo Frio facility incorporates CHC’s best tools, systems and processes from Brazil and around the world.

"We are determined to consistently be the top operator of offshore helicopter services in Brazil,” said Mr. Salazar.

According to Ricardo Maltez, general manager of BHS business operations, the base in Cabo Frio is strategically important to the offshore oil-and-gas industry and, in turn, to BHS. The location is in the Campos Basin, a region that is responsible for more than 80 percent of Brazil’s oil production.

Cabo Frio is one of three BHS bases in the country. The others are also in Rio de Janeiro territory – one in Macaé and another in Farol de São Tomé, where a private heliport supports Petrobras, BHS’s largest customer in Brazil.

Mr. Maltez said that the new Cabo Frio hangar enables even higher service quality through increased efficiency for customers and BHS, along with more comfortable and productive workspace for BHS people. Customers, he said, will see greater flight availability and flexibility, because the facility accommodates more of the company’s advanced aircraft, skilled people and leading-edge technology.

Everything about the new hangar is improved: the passenger area, operations center, maintenance and workshop areas, training and meeting spaces, dressing and rest rooms, and more. The warehouse is four times larger, allowing for a greater volume and variety of parts.

FMI: www.chc.ca