Aviation safety centre

Buckinghamshire-based aviation safety group, AviateQ International, has opened an aviation safety centre in Aberdeen to provide support for North Sea helicopter operations.

The group's range of activities include advice on the selection of aircraft, air operators and monitors as well as 24-hour support for safety and logistics teams.

Andy Evans, a senior aviation adviser at AviateQ, said: 'Although the majority of our business is overseas, we have increasingly had a lot of interest from North Sea companies who recognise that informed and proactive management of their aviation risks is vital.’

According to the company, one of its successful offerings has been a shared auditing system.

Evans added: ‘This is something we run in Libya in particular, where we support six different oil companies. There is a small pool of helicopter and fixed-wing operators and we independently audit on behalf of a group of our customers. Our customers make significant savings and the air operators only need to support one audit, from which they get one clear, consistent report, with one set of prioritised actions.'

In addition to a London team, AviateQ has individual advisers based in Canada and Brazil. The group hopes to open a new subsidiary in a second major oil hub later this year.