Helicopter marketing company Avinco has been asked to recover, manage and remarket a fleet of EC225s previously operated by CHC following the operator’s filing for Chapter 11.  Avinco report that they have already completed a “lengthy and complex” initial phase consisting of centralising 21 machines spread about the world to one European location.  HeliHub.com research suggests that the only leasing company coming anywhere near these numbers of repossessed ex-CHC EC225s is Parilease, a division of French bank BNP Paribas.  The total includes aircraft which had been operated by CHC in Australia, Brazil, East Timor, Norway, United Kingdom and Uruguay, and eight of the total have recently been moved to the Isle of Man register.  We are not aware of the situation of the last EC225 – our data shows 22 handed back to Parilease.

The Avinco press release suggests that with EASA lifting the grounding on the EC225 last week, Avinco will thus be able to bring the aircraft to the market in 2017.  However, with the national authorities in both UK and Norway (the only likely markets for EC225s under EASA rules) both maintaining the grounding in their own airspace for the foreseeable future, the uphill nature of the remarketing task looks as steeper as ever.

“Avinco faces an unrivalled and exciting challenge with this contract‘ comments François Gautier, Avinco’s CEO. “Finding new homes for these aircraft will take creativity and good use of our network and knowledge off all helicopter operations worldwide. But we are very happy to see the 225 flying again and we are confident we can take up the challenge and assist our customers to place these helicopters in spite of a more than difficult market.”

Avinco report that the 21 units were manufactured between 2007 and 2012, with 3 in SAR configuration and 18 in Oil and Gas configuration – although bizarrely, the published press release text which prompted this article has “TBC” at that point, suggesting that the split is still To Be Confirmed.  [Update: Avinco made contact and confirmed the split is 3 and 18]

Jeremy Parkin – HeliHub.com