Steve Creedy, Aviation Writer, The Australian Newspaper, reported on Fri 17 Apr ’15:
Helicopter growth in crossfire
Growth in the Australian helicopter industry appears to have stalled as it is caught in a crossfire of factors, including the fall in the dollar and the end of the mining boom.
Research by the Australian Helicopter Industry Association showed the growth rate for rotary-wing aircraft slumped from 7.8 per cent in mid-2014 to less than 1 percent for the nine months ending March. It warned the industry could be headed for a contraction in the next financial year.
The latest figure equated to the addition of just 10 helicopters over the nine months to bring the rotary-wing fleet to 2114 machines. This included 1304 single-engine piston machines, 563 powered by single-engine turbines and 247 multi-engine helicopters.
Queensland hosted 36 per cent of the fleet followed by NSW (21 per cent), Western Australia (16 per cent), Victoria (13 per cent), Northern Territory (9 per cent), South Australia (2 per cent). The Australian Capital Territory had eight helicopters. The association said sales of new machines had "declined substantially", although it expected medical transport and military training contracts to push deliveries of bigger helicopters next financial year, while pre-owned sales were steady.
Takeovers, mergers and the dramatic fall in the oil price had deflated the offshore helicopter industry, while harder to track on-shore exploration had fallen as the mineral and gas exploration boom had settled into the production phase. Scenic operators, who had initially been confronted with a high dollar, were expected to see some benefits from the lower exchange rate.
AHIA secretary Rob Rich said the steady growth in the helicopter fleet over the past decade had averaged 7-8 per cent. But the fleet's rate of growth had stagnated in the past three quarters. Mr Rich said many factors were responsible for the setback, including the end of the mineral boom and long-running droughts in Northern Australia combined with general global financial difficulties.
He also blamed the federal government's financial problems and the low dollar. "The collapse of the Australian dollar has made aviation assets more expensive to buy and operate," Mr Rich said in a letter to members. "The slight increase in aviation tourism activities has only provided token compensation."
The AHIA is also keen to work with the Civil Aviation Safety Authority on sorting out problems with Civil Aviation Safety Regulation Part 61 on flight crew licensing. AHIA president Peter Crook announced this week that the association was beefing up its regulatory reform team to monitor and work on the integration of Part 61 into other draft legislation. The regulator has told the association it has 12 flight operations rule standards development projects under way and it is seeking comment on the new rules. Mr Crook said the association had recently been involved in fruitful talks with senior CASA officials about the problems it saw with Part 61. "We're here to help," he said. "We want to make sure this industry works."
Aviation groups at the smaller end of town have expressed concern about the way Part 61 was introduced and more recently about new fees associated with the changes. The Australian Aviation Associations forum called on CASA to "tighten its belt" rather than introduce the new Part 61 charges as part of a proposed cost recovery policy, even though CASA is not proposing to increase the overall amount it seeks from the industry.
The regulator promised to review all comments on the proposed fee changes and seriously consider all suggestions.
End. Our thanks to Steve for his updates. AHIA