A PILOTS' union has warned that the North Sea oil industry risks "haemorrhaging talent" after a second helicopter operator announced plans to slash jobs.

CHC Scotia wants to axe 50 posts in Aberdeen, including around 25 pilot jobs, with engineers and other support staff also among those being cut. The company blamed "challenging conditions" facing the industry amid a collapse in oil prices.

It comes weeks after Bristow Helicopters told staff it is to cut 130 jobs, including 66 helicopter pilots.

Balpa, the trade union for pilots, said today [tue] it has entered negotiations with CHC Scotia to save as many jobs as possible and push for voluntary redundancies where necessary.

BALPA General Secretary, Jim McAuslan, said: “This is yet more devastating news, not only for the CHC Scotia community, but for North Sea industry as a whole.

"The loss of experience is a major threat to the UK economy. It is more important than ever that the governments should commit to helping businesses in the North Sea through this downturn, so skills are not lost when the situation improves.

"The Scottish Minister, Fergus Ewing, has provided support through various agencies to help those displaced by redundancy. But there is no response yet to our call to get all the players in a room together to see how we can stop the industry haemorrhaging talent."

He added that the loss of experienced pilots would also undermine safety in the North Sea's offshore industry.

"Job losses are bad; loss of life is inexcusable and those who let contracts need to be publicly challenged under oath on how far safety really figures in their calculations,” said Mr McAuslan.

The UK Government announced a package of support in the March Budget which it said will generate more than £4 billion of additional investment in the UK's oil and gas industry over the next five years.

Meanwhile, the Scottish Government said its energy jobs taskforce, set up in January to coordinate action between government, the wider public sector, industry, unions and industry bodies, was making "a positive difference at a challenging time".

A spokesman for CHC Scotia said: “The offshore industry continues to face challenging conditions and we, like our customers and competitors, have had to keep our resourcing requirements under regular review.

“While we have worked diligently to address market conditions without affecting our wider workforce in Aberdeen, unfortunately we are unable to continue to do so.

“In the region of 50 positions may be affected at our Aberdeen base.

“CHC will continue to work to reduce costs, strengthen our balance sheet and partner with customers to provide solutions that result in lower customer costs while maintaining an absolute commitment to industry leading safety, availability and reliability.”