Bristow Helicopters Fires 100 Pilots, Engineers

The management of Bristow Helicopters Nigeria has announced that 100 of its pilots and engineers would be laid off following the economic tsunami caused by the Coronavirus pandemic.

The airline expressed regrets and described the move as a “painful, but decisive step” to keep the company in business.

This was disclosed in a statement released by Bristow management on Tuesday, August 4.

The statement said, “This decision has not been made lightly, but having considered the state of the business and the very serious constraints caused by the spread of the COVID-19 disease and the downturn in the oil and gas market, the company must now take this painful, but decisive step to ensure the continuity of its business and delivery of essential services to its clients.

“One of these measures includes the right-sizing of the business to ensure that the company has the optimal level of personnel to continue the safe delivery of its services to its clients, whilst allowing the appropriate capacity for future growth.

“Accordingly, and with much regret, the company has taken the very difficult decision to release over 100 pilots and engineers (both National and Expatriates) over the next couple of weeks.”

The development is coming about 24 hours after another Nigerian air operator, Air Peace, fired many of its pilots across its fleet and slashed staff salaries by up to 40 percent.

The company also blamed the sacking on the devastating effect of the Covid-19 pandemic.