Offshore workers could face a nervy wait to find out if they will be flying home for Christmas.
Aberdeen has been issued a yellow wind warning today which is causing North Sea flights to be cancelled or delayed less than a week before the holiday.
North-east helicopter operators NHV and Offshore Helicopter Services UK a combined 17 cancelled flights from the Granite City heliport.
Affected customers include Total Energies, CNOOC, Serica, Harbour Energy, and Petrofac.
Flights delayed due to weather
In addition to cancelled flights Offshore Helicopter Services UK is reporting a number of flights being delayed due to weather throughout the day.
The Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning for wind across many parts of the UK today.
The warnings for the strong winds that the Met Office says will create “travel disruption” is set to come to an end by 9pm today.
Bristow, another Aberdeen-based helicopter operator has delayed flights for Repsol and Chrysor Petroleum as well.
Helicopter schedules disrupted
The North Sea operators that have been struck with cancellations today have been asked how changes in flight plans are affecting if staff can get home for Christmas.
CNOOC already has plans are already in place to deal with the disruption caused by today’s strong winds.
The firm said: “We have crew change flights scheduled to fly Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, therefore we don’t expect today’s adverse weather to impact our people who are due home for Christmas.”
One operator, CHC, is not advertising any delayed or cancelled flights today, however, all of the firm’s flights that were on its online flight tracker have since been taken down.
The French supermajor, TotalEnergies, told Energy Voice: “We’re not anticipating any issues at this stage.”