Transportes Aéreos Pegaso - Since 5 May 2005, the Mexican company has been operating three EC135s in the Gulf of Mexico for its oil field support missions. It is the first operator to introduce the EC135 in this sector. The testimony of Enrique Zepeda Navarro, the Chief Executive Officer of Transportes Aéreos Pegaso:

"With our offshore oil field operations, we’ve built up a great deal of experience on Eurocopter helicopters in the Gulf of Mexico. For a long time now, we’ve been flying AS350 B, B2 and B3 A-Stars, up to 6 BK117s and up to 5 BO105s. In December 2004, we started renovating our fleet adding an EC145 and, in May 2005, three EC135s were delivered. Since the latter entered service, each has logged 800 flight hours at a rate of about 100 hours per month.

We chose the EC135 for its high level of security, his proven reliability, his easy-to-operate characteristics and his state of the art technology that allow us to provide our customers with the most competitive operations costs. We also really appreciate its roomy cabin which is perfectly sized for our passenger load. A helicopter capable of carrying nine to twelve people wouldn’t have suited the needs of our customers, such as PEMEX, Schlumberger, etc.

As a general rule, we transport around five passengers on each rotation between our base in Ciudad del Carmen and the oil rigs about 40 to 90 nautical miles out in the Gulf of Mexico. After leaving the passengers on the oil rig, the helicopters take on other passengers or ferry loads to other rigs. Each helicopter takes off and lands between 40 and 60 times a day. Today, the EC135s have no real competitors in the oil sector. What’s more, they’re just what we need for our missions.”