Analysis of activity for each S-92 helicopter operating in the offshore crew transfer fleet shows 81% of the fleet were active in June 2020 with 39 aircraft currently inactive. Of the inactive units, a number have been returned to lessors in the last six months, reflecting current sentiment in the market. The active fleet are, in total, flying 27% fewer number of flights now vs one year prior. These are amongst the headline findings of the latest “S-92 Fleet Census” released today by research firm Air & Sea Analytics.
Director Steve Robertson remarked “It has been a difficult period of time for the offshore rotorcraft industry but it is important to not lose perspective - these are some of the most critical assets in the oilfield services (OFS) supply chain. Since 2015 there have been two retired units and today utilisation stands at 81%. Compare that to the mobile offshore rig business where more than a quarter of the fleet (>250 rigs) have been scrapped over the same period of time yet fleet utilisation is still only at 67%. Are the owners and operators having a tough time just now? Yes, many of them are. Is this a ‘bad’ asset class? Relative to other OFS segments, we’d argue it’s one of the best performing over the last 12 months. The challenge for the rotorcraft business in oil and gas, just like any other OFS business, is how to ensure continuity and profitability in the supply chain.”
We review the fleet unit by unit and share and sense check our outputs on the same basis with the OEM. The S-92 market has been subject to arbitary speculation for years. The purpose of this analysis is to provide an objective, data-driven, independent view and to evaluate the demand-side (i.e. the number of units flying) rather than cover the supply side (fleet).”
In contrast to our previous update, where we noted a number of return-to-service work programmes underway, we are now seeing that these have largely stopped and more aircraft have returned to lessors. However, the largest owner of S-92s, Milestone, have acquired a number of units recently, including one that was acquired off-contract and has since been found a contract in Canada.”
The ‘S-92 Fleet Census’ report, available now via Air & Sea Analytics, evaluates S-92 usage by country and operator, showing the current position vs one year prior. A unit-by-unit breakdown is provided by serial number showing location and status.
Active Heavy & Super-Medium Aircraft Dec 2019 vs Jun 2020
In our previous report we noted that Norway and the UK both had 36 S-92s active. We have since seen units move to Norway and as of June 2020 it has 38 units active compared to 29 in the UK. The UK still has the largest fleet of S-92s in-situ, with 41 present at the time of writing.
Whilst the number of active aircraft has actually increased slightly, operators are thinning their fleets and returning inactive aircraft to lessors. Babcock, Bristow, CHC and Lider are amongst those returning aircraft. Overall flights and flying hours are materially lower since early April this year (down 27% Y-o-Y at the time of writing) and these hours are being spread over the active fleet of aircraft. Cougar and Chevron were the only operators to see an increase in fleet size.
Super-medium units continue to be delivered and find work in the market and the overall number of heavy and super-medium units working has increased in the last six months from 214 to 224 units
For more information please contact us or click on the report cover to the right.
