Air North for sale?
 

I hear Cobham are keen on buying Air North.

Interesting, shame Qantas does not want to buy them would make a good fit in their network.

Buying airlines wouldn't fit with Alan's "we'll be rooned!" narrative.

What if...
 

Alan might not want to buy anymore, but what if he wants the sub-contractors to! That way he can get the flying done, keeping market share, and doing it cheaper than using mainline! Just a thought.

FMC.

You never know. Alan might buy them on......Impulse. ;)

Now will the E-190's go on the Capitec AoC, or will the E-170's go on the Virgin AoC?
Will the E-120 be replaced by ATR's?
But what does one do with the M23's?

If my memory serves me correctly, the very first thing Borghetti did when he joined was to get rid of the E170. I remember attending an early roadshow and his words on the matter were reasonably clear....

Might finally get that EBA sorted :)

so who isn't interested?
 

So far we slipped from Cobham to QF to Virgin being interested. For many years, Cobham had a "no airlines" policy as the Brits were only really interested in Coastwatch. They lived with the FIFO and Airlink bits under sufferance - I wonder if that's changed or if Airnorth is even available?


It would be an interesting test of due diligence for any buyer, methinks... :eek: :eek: :eek:

or Pearl could buy them and get their contract work back.......

Well if the paspaley clan are after a write off, you can't beat aircraft on the ground with crew not working :)

Why would they spend any more money?

Hour for hour, they'd have to be the best paid drivers in Austraya ;)

There might have been some casual interest, but Cobham buying Airnorth is a bit 'out there'. They may both be operators of narrow body RPT jets, but they have very different business models.

Airnorth is an airline, that makes money by offering tickets to the public.

Cobham's aussie businesses are like its UK and worldwide cousins - businesses that won't supply anything unless they have a long term, 500+ page thick contract, usually tightly integrated with one (maybe two) specialised customer(s).

B717 = a 5 year multimillion $$ contract with a single customer (QF) following 22 years of 146/717 regional rpt.
BAe146 to Moomba,
BAe146 night freight Australian Air Express,
LADS.
FIFO in WA.
Coastwatch = Sentinel contract with the federal government.

Cobham managers would be mindful of the possible effect on the group share price if it moves away from what Cobham does best (single customer, tightly integrated, multi million $, long term contracts) and tries to sell tickets to thousands of consumers at a couple hundred bucks a pop.

I can't see it - but stranger things have happened!

Maybe Air North buying Cobham.

It's principal always was the Minnow swallowing the Whale

Any more on this little beauty?

Resurrecting an old thread, but apparently Air North is now up for sale and with first round bids due by the end of this week.

https://www.afr.com/street-talk/auct...0190805-p52dul

My guess is that Rex and Alliance would place bids. Thoughts anyone?

Maybe nobody wants it and it gets wound up?
For the guys and girls on the payroll I hope not :uhoh:

Wouldnt mind betting buyer would want the AOC and not the airframes. Milk run down the centre is not likely to be a good earner. Leave that for Rex. M23 are not doing much, E170s mostly leased anyway. What would you do with the Braz? Going to be interesting.

It will be a tough sell with just a few old Turboprops and some leased E Jets. Bristow may have to give Air North away. There is enough capacity in the marketplace to take over the routes, take on and re train the crews as required.

I wonder if Air North will come with a £17.1m cash gift like Eastern Airways in the UK?

https://www.oilandgaspeople.com/news...revious-owner/

Maybe Cobham will put a bid in

Looks like Rex is not interested in buying Air North.

"Mr Sharp said part of Rex's reasoning for knocking back a bid for Airnorth was due to its "culture". "
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-...outes/11406282

Amen, Smiling Monkey... blind Freddy could have told anyone that and it's great that it's finally out in the open.
It wasn't only the Bristow "Fixed Wing" Manager's ineptiude but alot of the office management @ ScareNorth that required "Don't Come Monday" letters!
Sadly, a once great Regional operator is on it's knees and in question.

Nice quick move by Babcock with a couple of fresh looking "whirly-birds" in Karratha, after Bristow packed up two of it's Pumas. What happened there?

The CP probably cannot believe his luck.

I can't see where they said it was a bad culture...
When a company hires an individual they will look whether the person will fit into and thrive in that companies' culture. Same could be said of acquiring an entire company.

Why bother buying an operation when you can wait for it to collapse and step in and do it on your own anyway without paying a premium? Rex doesn't want to deal with E-Jets, but they sense opportunity in the EMB-120 ops, albeit opportunity that they would use Saab 340s on.

Saab 340s in the NT. Complete disaster.

Why would that be the case?