EMPLOYEE BENEFIT PLANS

6 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2019

Pension Plans

The components of net periodic pension cost other than the service cost component are included in other income (expense), net on our condensed consolidated statement of operations. The following table provides a detail of the components of net periodic pension cost (in thousands):



	Three Months Ended September 30,						Six Months Ended September 30,
	2019			2018			2019			2018
Service cost for benefits earned during the period	$	152		$	210		$	311		$	429
Interest cost on pension benefit obligation	2,799			3,221			5,718			6,585
Expected return on assets	(3,841		)	(4,247		)	(7,846		)	(8,681		)
Prior service costs	34			—			69			—
Amortization of unrecognized losses	1,976			1,970			4,037			4,027
Net periodic pension cost	$	1,120		$	1,154		$	2,289		$	2,360

The current estimates of our cash contributions to our defined benefit pension plans to be paid in fiscal year 2020 are $15.6 million, of which $7.6 million was paid during the six months ended September 30, 2019. The weighted-average expected long-term rate of return on assets for our U.K. pension plans as of March 31, 2019 was 3.4%.

Incentive Compensation

Prior to May 11, 2019, stock-based awards were made under the Bristow Group Inc. 2007 Long-Term Incentive Plan (the “2007 Plan”). A maximum of 10,646,729 shares of common stock were reserved. Awards granted under the 2007 Plan were in the form of stock options, stock appreciation rights, shares of restricted stock, other stock-based awards (payable in cash or common stock) or performance awards, or any combination thereof, and were made to outside directors, employees or consultants. As of September 30, 2019, 2,355,625 shares remained available for grant under the 2007 Plan.

We have a number of other incentive and stock option plans which are described in Note 10 to our fiscal year 2019 Financial Statements.

Total stock-based compensation expense, which includes stock options and restricted stock, totaled $0.7 million and $2.0 million for the three months ended September 30, 2019 and 2018, respectively, and $1.5 million and $3.7 million for the six months ended September 30, 2019 and 2018, respectively. Stock-based compensation expense has been allocated to our various regions.

No stock-based compensation was awarded in fiscal year 2020 under the 2007 Plan. The 2007 Plan and all awards thereunder were cancelled effective upon emergence from bankruptcy on October 31, 2019. See Note 2 for further details on fiscal year 2020 incentive compensation awards.

In addition to the key employee incentive plans approved by the Bankruptcy Court described in Note 2, we made retention payments in April and October 2019 totaling $3.2 million to non-executives and retention payments in April 2019 totaling $3.1 million to executives and made $3.5 million of payments for the first quarter fiscal year 2020 management incentive plan in May 2019.