Draft:NHV Group

NHV Group is a helicopter operator based in Ostend, Belgium with over 450 employees worldwide.

They specialise in business-to-business helicopter services offshore. NHV provides operations for the Oil and Gas and Renewables sector, with a focus on the North Sea region and West Africa.

In 2014 NHV became the global launching customer of the Airbus H175 Helicopters and to date have performed around half of the global H175 flying hours.

NHV Group was founded in 1997 by Eric Van Hal, his brother Jef De Kinder and William Wilford. The three entrepreneurs realised that there was a gap in the market for helicopter crew transfers when ships couldn’t transport harbour pilots, due to extreme weather conditions.

On May 15, 1997, Noordzee Helikopters Vlaanderen as they were known, officially began operations in Ostend, Belgium transporting crews for the Flemish Shipping Pilot Service. Their first aircraft was the MSN 6510 Dauphin N3, and since then NHV Group has grown across a variety of sectors.

In 2001 NHV Group expanded operations by providing ambulance and emergency medical services (HEMS) in France. From then, they expanded its HEMS service to different hospitals in Belgium and France, supporting this with MD Explorers and EC145 aircraft.

2006 saw NHV Group starting operations with the Dutch coastguard to transport shipping pilots on and off vessels using the AS365N3, the Dutch coastguard was the launch customer for the type.

NHV began operating for the Oil and Gas industry in 2006 in Denmark.

In 2008 NHV expanded overseas to the UK, opening their Norwich base. In 2009 they established their presence in West Africa with offshore flights from Ghana using the AS365N3, followed by the H175. The company further expanded its presence in Africa in 2010 after introducing the Leonardo AW139 for Oil and Gas flights in Nigeria, as well as opening a base in Abidjan, Ivory Coast in 2012.

Since 2011 NHV performed flights to transport Shipping pilots, crew and supplies to and from vessels from Pistoolhaven. NHV also provided Search and rescue coverage of the Dutch maritime territories, in cooperation with their Den Helder SAR base. They completed 1040 rescue missions in the North Sea off the coast of Belgium and Holland.

15th November 2022 NHV ceased operations for the Dutch Search and Rescue.

NHV started supporting the Offshore Wind Farm sector in 2012, supporting the maintenance and repair of wind turbines off the Belgian coast, by winching the maintenance crews and equipment down to the turbines.

NHV opened their Den Helder Base in 2013 operating from Den Helder Airport. The base was opened to primarily support the Oil and Gas Industry with their first H175, but also operated the Search and Rescue service using two Airbus Helicopters AS365N3 Dauphin.

Ardian is NHV’s main shareholder, acquired the company in 2013 which allowed them to acquire the Blueway Group in 2014 which included Airlift, Blueway Offshore Norway, DanCopter and Vertech Offshore.

NHV Group is still operating with H175 helicopters from the base in Esbjerg, Denmark and in December 2021 NHV sold Airlift to Norwegian company Arne Stand Golding AS.

NHV were awarded an ISO9001 accreditation for Quality, Health, Safety and Environment in 2018.  In the same year, they added 7 aircraft to a UK Air Operator Certificate to allow the company to continue to operate from their UK bases following Brexit.

In April 2020, a new base was opened in Midden-Zeeland to support offshore windfarm activities in the region.

At the end of the year, their UK Blackpool Oil and Gas base was also opened to provide passenger transfer services in the East Irish Sea, becoming the launch partner of the Leonardo AW169 use for Oil and Gas.

Also in 2020, 6 x H155 aircraft were sold to Air Greenland.

January 2021 NHV became the first non-German company to be awarded a contract with the German Army for maintenance, supply, and training.

During this year, the NHV Training Academy was also established providing internal and external training for engineers and pilots.

In 2022, NHV celebrated 25 years of operation, hosting a range of events at their bases across Europe and West Africa.

Bases:

NHV is headquartered at Ostend Airport, in a dedicated building at the south-west edge, along with current operational bases across Europe and Africa:

• Aberdeen International Airport - Scotland, UK
• Abidjan – Abidjan, Ivory Coast
• Blackpool Airport – England, UK
• Den Helder Airport – The Netherlands
• Esbjerg – Denmark
• Norwich Airport – England, UK
• Rotterdam – The Netherlands

NHV also has a presence at the following locations for maintenance contracts:

• Lanvéoc, France
• Laupheim, Germany

Operations:

Maritime Services

NHV’s Offshore Maritime services consist of a variety of operations including hoist operations, deck landings at sea and transportation of crew, including:

• Ship pilots and crew to and from vessels
• Crew and supplies to offshore wind farms and delivering these safely on the turbines for construction and maintenance purposes

Oil and Gas

Services Include:

• Offshore crew and cargo transport to offshore and remote onshore Oil and Gas installations, both for production and exploration
• Day & Night MEDEVAC flights
• Other ad hoc missions

Search & Rescue (SAR)

Services Include:

• Providing a dedicated SAR crew with experienced pilots, hoist operators, divers and engineers to complete these safe and reliable operations
• Conducting daily SAR training sessions in order to simulate real life situations

Support Services:

Training – NHV Academy

NHV has a Maintenance Training Organisation under EASA PART 147, providing maintenance technicians training from Basic B1 & B2 to Type Trainings on various aircraft types.

NHV is also an Approved Training Organisation (ATO) , which means NHV's own qualified instructors ensure continuous training for all flying personnel. NHV can train and type rate its own pilots, and provide them with the (TRI) Instructor courses. Live courses, computer-based training and flight simulators are used. NHV’s type specific training courses are available to customers in all segments of aviation.  

Maintenance

NHV also has its own maintenance centre, being a certified provided of rotor wing maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services from tip to tail. In addition to supporting its own fleet, the company provides third-party maintenance services to a variety of civil and military clients.

Fleet:

NHV operates a variety of fleet of aircraft.

• Airbus H175
• Airbus H145D2/D3
•  Airbus AS365N3
• Leonardo AW169
• Leonardo AW139

NHV Group was created in 1997.