Brintel Helicopters has upset the odds by winning a contract from Maersk Olie og Gas AS, ahead of an A.P. Moller subsidiary, Maersk Helicopters. Awarded in April of this year, Brintel had been working on the contract - a five years fixed, three one-year option - since December 1998. Speaking from the company's Danish base, Derek Vass, Brintel's spokesman, told EBAN: "Our directors in the UK were of the opinion that it would be very difficult as Maersk Helicopters had held the contract for over 20 years. But it didn't deter me." \rA subsidiary of Canadian Helicopter Corporation, Vass says Brintel had not won a sizeable contract in the two and a half years leading up to the Maersk deal. So what was different this time? Vass said: "I think flexibility, service and size of the company tipped it in our favour. Overall cost was obviously another important factor. "We structured our company completely differently from how Maersk Helicopters had. We don't do any major overhauls here so the majority of our overheads are carried at the Aberdeen base. Therefore we can do it with considerably less staff, approximately 30 per cent.\rAs for the build-up to the deal, Vass told EBAN: "I had recently joined the company and although they let me have a dabble, I don't think they expected us to pre-qualify. However we did manage it."\rDerek Vass has been in the oil industry for 21 years. He told EBAN that the landing of such a deal has made a big difference to the standing of the company and warned that Brintel would not be resting on its laurels from now on. He said: "It's our intention to maximise the business potential; we are not about to rely on the oil and gas industry, although it is a major source of income. Our philosophy is, anything that requires a helicopter, we're chasing." \rIn order that it may carry out Maersk's oil and gas work, Brintel in Esbjerg, Denmark has recently registered three AS332 Super Puma helicopters and one Sikorsky S76A+.