The continued struggle of the oil-and-gas market took its toll on Bell Helicopter Textron’s second quarter results, with commercial deliveries dropping by 40 percent and revenues down $46 million, the company reported on Friday. Bell delivered 24 commercial helicopters in the quarter, compared with 39 a year earlier. Revenues dropped from $850 million in the second quarter of 2015 to $804 million in the most recent quarter and profits fell $20 million, to $81 million. 

Textron chairman, president and CEO Scott Donnelly, discussing results to investors, conceded that he expects the volume of commercial helicopter sales will continue to be down in the second half—and below original expectations. But he does not expect that will significantly effect overall financial results of the company for the year, with the lower-margin lighter commercial models struggling more. “To be light in terms of volume on some of the lighter aircraft will not have a meaningful impact within the year. It all comes down, largely, to the larger aircraft and particularly the 412s.” He added that the 412s are meeting expectations, saying, “Those are more heavily laid into the back half of the year.”

But he also said, “The commercial helicopter business remains very challenging…It’s pretty tough out there.” Donnelly pointed to the oil-and-gas sector, saying it remains difficult. “You've got some of these guys in bankruptcy. You've got a lot of their fleet that's sitting on the ground. They're just not being utilized.”

While the oil pricing is rebounding, Donnelly does not believe it has returned to the point of a significant upturn in the market and isn’t certain how long it will take for that rebound to trickle to oil-and-gas support operations.