In 1999, in a wide-ranging re-alignment of North Sea helicopter assets, Canadian Helicopter (CHC) bought Norway’s Helikopter Service, together with Brintel and Bond in the UK. The company was soon relaunched as CHC Scotia.

A package of assets of the new group– essentially the non oil-related ones–was put up for sale and Brintel commercial director Tony Jones and David Hayler approached CHC with an offer of a management buyout. This was accepted but, as part of the deal, CHC stipulated that BI would not bid for offshore work during a five-year period.

In return, BI won a similar agreement that CHC would not compete in its line of work. This period ended last May. Jones said BI has since rebid for several contracts, including the Falklands and Navy support from Plymouth, Devon, “so it was important that we had a reciprocal agreement.

“We are now an established company and are free to compete on the same basis as everyone else. So when this Shell contract off Donegal came up, it was our first opportunity to pitch for oil work again and were very pleased to be successful.”