Eastern Airways may be hit by Finances of US Parent Company

**No Smoking** · April 27th, 2019, 00:58

ATW Online; Friday 26 April 2019
US parent of UK’s Eastern Airways faces bankruptcy

UK regional carrier Eastern Airways declined to comment on its future in light of the financial problems facing its parent company, US-based Bristow Group.

The Houston-headquartered helicopter operator is attempting to stave off bankruptcy, having revealed in its preliminary third-quarter FY2019 results Feb. 11 “material weakness” in internal controls over financial reporting.

In an April 15 update, Bristow said it had “retained financial and legal advisors to explore strategic financial alternatives, with the objective of strengthening its long-term capital position.”

Bristow president and CEO L. Don Miller added that “Bristow is working diligently with its financial and legal advisors to best position the company for the future, both financially and operationally. The steps we are announcing today will afford us additional time to continue our efforts to complete our financial reporting process and address our capital structure.”

Eastern Airways is a Humberside-based wholly owned subsidiary of Bristow Group. The carrier flies primarily to airports along the eastern seaboard of the UK and is a major supplier of charter flights for the UK’s oil and gas industry.

In response to a query from ATW, Eastern said it had no additional comment beyond the Bristow Group statements.

Eastern’s fleet includes ATR 72-600s, BAe Jetstream 41s, Embraer ERJ145s and Saab 2000s.

Australian carrier Airnorth is also a wholly owned subsidiary of Bristow Group.

By: Alan Dron

NS Comment: Hope all goes well for Eastern Airways.

**Jarwot** · April 27th, 2019, 17:02

Don't know the history of Eastern Airways. But guess it may be eventful. Just looking at its operation it must point to an expensive engineering problem, with so many different aircraft types.

**No Smoking** · April 28th, 2019, 00:14

They do a lot of their own maintenance, with hangars at Aberdeen and Humderside. Varied fleet necessary for their oil-industry support contracts.

**Alber Ratman** · May 15th, 2019, 00:32

ATR 72s x 2, SAAB 2Ks x 8, EJRs x 5 and a dimismishing fleet of J41s as BAES have killed support for them. Lakey has rebrought his old company from Bristows for a pittance of what he sold it to them for (actually nothing so I have heard). Good luck to my old mates there.