PHI Launches Into Its Second Fifty Years As World's Biggest, Safest Helo Company

Louisiana's Petroleum Helicopters, Inc., has entered its second 50 years with a vengeance, hosting a Golden Anniversary party for 1,000 people at its Lafayette headquarters last week, celebrating its rise to be the largest, and arguably the safest, outfit in the business.

The company started by Robert L. Suggs with $100,000 and three Bell 47s in 1949 now boasts annual revenues of some $256 million, with 2,100 full time employees working a fleet of 300 aircraft at 45 domestic and 11 foreign bases.

PHI is looking ahead to: increased international business, in many instances effected via joint ventures with local partners; more technical services via stronger alliances with customers companies; and growth in EMS or what PHI calls aeromedical services, with an increasing reliance on fixed-wing aircraft.
The company even has a Bell 609 tiltrotor on order.

PHI got its start by supporting Louisiana's nascent offshore oil industry and today operates along 600 miles of U.S. shoreline and in countries including Angola, Ecuador, Columbia, Peru, the Philippines, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Venezuela and Zaire. PHI has branched from the oil patch to the aeromedical and technical services areas. The company says its Morgan City, LA, facility is the world's largest commercial heliport, with 46 helipads.

PHI was the first commercial helicopter operator to log the historic milestone of one million flight hours. It was the first to log two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight million flight hours, too. It was the first flyer ever to win FAA approval of IFR helicopter operation.

For all that, PHI is perhaps best known for its safety record. The company antes $1 million a year for cash awards for employees who work accident-free. Since instituting its Safety Incentive Program, PHI claims an average accident rate of 0.64 per 100,000 hours flown, compared to the national average of 8.72. The tally includes a period exceeding two years with no accidents at all in more than 550,000 hours of flight time.

One of PHI's numerous safety awards was for 82,000 flight hours of accident and violation free flight time in the aeromedical industry.

"We have no higher priority," says PHI chairman and CEO Carroll W. Suggs, who is the widow of the company's founder. "Everything else will sparkle as a result of our safety performance," she says. "You have to be able to manage your costs, maintain your
flexibility without jeopardizing service and safety."

Looking ahead, "International opportunities are tremendous," Suggs told Show News, specifically mentioning South America, the Pacific Rim and the former Soviet states. Joint ventures are likely in those areas, and acquisitions are probable too. "Our size allows us to have a significant amount of flexibility," she says, as PHI has "earned the right" to pick and choose among myriad areas of potential growth.

Another growth area for PHI is EMS, where the company last year expanded a fleet of fixed-wing aircraft to 13 so as to speed access to a larger number of medical facilities. More fixed-wing aircraft are likely, Suggs says, noting that the 13 aircraft count doesn't include several owned and operated by PHI in the former Soviet Union.

Technical services is another future growth area, as PHI will increasingly offer the maintenance and overhaul expertise it's developed for its own big fleet to a wider range of customers.
For the tiltrotor, Suggs sees the best prospects overseas, as the location of most Gulf of Mexico oil rigs and the drive to cut costs precludes the use of a $10 million aircraft. But, "if the customer's willing to pay for it, we're willing to operate it," she says, noting that oil prices may well firm before PHI takes delivery of its Bell 609 in 2003 or so.

"It's all about believing in our people," Suggs says about her plans to maintain PHI's leadership position in the new millennium, "and staying focused on what we do best, which is operating and maintaining helicopters, safely."

"It's all about how well you manage what you do," she adds. "Managing your destiny is very important."

By Rich Piellisch