Mark Huber is an aviation industry veteran who has worked in the flight training, aircraft sales, aircraft component, and airport development businesses. He has flight time in more than 50 different and diverse aircraft, including helicopters, aerobatic aircraft, vintage warbirds, jet fighters, business jets and turboprops, and transport-category aircraft. He has jumped out of several of these—on purpose—with a parachute. His defense and aviation journalism has been published in a variety of national and international periodicals.

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Mark Huber

By an affirmative vote of 96.3 percent, members of the British Airline Pilots’ Association (BALPA) voted to authorize a rolling strike against helicopter provider Bristow Group’s UK operations. BALPA will conduct weekly two-day strikes throughout next month beginning on March 3.
BALPA said it is taking the action due to a lack of progress in negotiating a new contract with the company. “Bristow’s management has failed to listen to employees and offer [a] decent pay deal. We have repeatedly opened the door for them to come forward with a revised offer, but it just hasn’t come,” said Amy Leversidge, BALPA general secretary. “We strongly urge Bristow to start listening to what their workers are telling them loud and clear—to get back to the bargaining table with BALPA with a fair and reasonable pay offer, to prevent further escalation in this dispute.”
Europe is Bristow’s largest offshore energy revenue region, accounting for $267 million through the first nine months of 2023. Bristow provides helicopters for oil and gas production (OGP) operations in the North Sea from bases at Sumburgh, Norwich, and Aberdeen. It also is contracted to fly search-and-rescue (SAR) missions for His Majesty’s Coast Guard, using a mixed fleet of Sikorsky S-92A and Leonardo AW189 helicopters and employing 360 at 10 search-and-rescue (SAR) bases across the UK.
Bristow said it “would not allow” the strikes, characterized as an “industrial action,” to impact its SAR operations and has developed “mitigation plans” to cover those operations and its OGP obligations. Bristow’s current SAR contract with the UK runs through December 2026. A 10-year follow-on contract is valued at $1.9 billion.

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