Mining boom gives aviation specialist new wings Steve Creedy, Aviation writer From: The Australian March 24, 2010 12:00AM
BRISBANE-BASED resource aviation specialist Alliance Airlines is undergoing its biggest expansion since 2002 thanks to the return of the mining boom.
Eight more Fokker-100 jets, acquired from a European vendor, are due to be delivered from May.
This will leave Alliance with a fleet of 19 of the 100-seat workhorse twinjets, in addition to its fleet of six Fokker-50 turboprops.
The ex-US Airways planes will allow the company to expand its nationwide fly-in, fly-out contracts as the resource sector hits its stride after being interrupted by the global financial crisis.
The airline recently announced it would open a new base in Cairns, in addition to existing operations in Brisbane, Townsville, Perth and Adelaide.
It is expected to create more than 60 new jobs for plots and cabin crew as well as additional engineering positions.
The F100s have proved popular with fly-in, fly-out operators because of their lower capital costs, reliability and ability to operate in hot weather.
The planes have a range of up to 3167km -- about 3.5 hours flying time -- and Alliance uses them on what is believed to be the world's longest fly-in, fly-out route between Brisbane and Telfer in Western Australia.
Alliance also uses them for adhoc charters for governments and organisations such as sporting groups, but does not provide scheduled airline services.
Alliance managing director Scott McMillan said the airline had worked with its customers during the downturn to reduce costs and was now looking to capitalise on renewed growth in Australia and neighbouring countries.
He said the investment was a vote of confidence in the future of the region's resources sector that demonstrated Alliance's commitment to supporting the industry.
The new planes would give it extra capacity to increase operations for existing clients as well as expand into new markets.
"Basically, through the GFC there was obviously no growth," he said. "But every single customer we have is talking about new services and some have already committed to them.
"So there's a fair bit of organic growth now."
Two of the F100s will go to the new Cairns base while others would cater for growth in Brisbane and particularly Western Australia, Mr McMillan said.
He said the airline was looking at short-term leases, possibly in Europe, for two or three of the aircraft, but he expected all eight planes to be in Australia by the end of the year.
Mining boom gives aviation specialist new wings | The Australian