A Special Post - Looking Back at Skytrans Airlines and Their 25 Years of Operations

As we’ve reported, Skytrans Airlines announced late on Friday 2 January that it had ceased operations with immediate effect.  The announcement came just one day after the airline celebrated its 25th anniversary of operations.

Further details regarding the announcement can be found at the links below from the Cairns Post:
http://www.cairnspost.com.au/

And the Skytrans website:
http://www.skytrans.com.au/

Looking back, Skytrans was founded by David and Sue Barnard in October 1990 as a charter airline, and began scheduled flights in 1993.  In November 2000, Skytrans merged with Air Swift Aviation, another small regional airline based in Cairns.  In June 2001, Skytrans took over services to Cooktown and Karumba from Macair Airlines.  In January 2005, the airline began to operate in competition with QantasLink on the Cairns to Townsville route, operating from its own terminals in both cities - I even enjoyed a flight on this route on board Cessna 404 VH-SZA in April 2007.

In December 2006, the airline was acquired from its founders by Australian Aviation Holdings, which also owned Queensland Regional Airlines and Inland Pacific Air.  Skytrans and merged in 2006, operating under the Skytrans banner.  With the closure of Macair in 2009, the airlines expanded their routes to Cape York.

At the end of 2014, Skytrans had two bases – in Cairns and Brisbane – and operated both scheduled and charter flights to as many as 25 locations throughout Australia, Papua New Guinea and the South-West Pacific. It was a major operator of the Dash 8 type aircraft in Australia, seating 36-50 passengers in both Dash-8-100 and Dash-8-300 types.

Before the merger with QRA in 2006, Skytrans also operated smaller commuter aircraft including Cessna 310 and Cessna 404 aircraft, along with a single Beech B200 King Air.

In 2013, Skytrans established their most recent base in Toowoomba with scheduled flights operating from Brisbane to Toowoomba, Charleville, Quilpie, Windorah, Birdsville, Bedourie, Boulia, Mount Isa, St George, Cunnamulla and Thargomindah.  Skytrans also launched flights from Toowoomba to Roma however, these flights only ran for a few months before the route was ceased.  With the opening of Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport, and the launch of QantasLink flights to Wellcamp from Sydney, Skytrans closed the Toowoomba base in November 2014 and ceased its own Sydney to Toowoomba service, despite strong passenger numbers.

Finally, from Wednesday 31 December 2014, Skytrans lost its contract to operate the Queensland Government subsidised routes, Gulf, Western 1 and Western 2 to Regional Express (REX).  This reportedly left the future financial viability of Skytrans in question, and is perhaps one of the main reasons why the Managing Director, Simon Wild, took the action to shut down operations of this great great Australian airline.

Below are the last known Regular Passenger Transport (RPT) movements of Skytrans flights into Cairns on Friday 2 December:

SKP85 Dash-8-100 VH-QQI Cairns-Aurukun-Pormpuraaw-Kowanyama-Cairns
SKP23 Dash-8-100 VH-QQB Cairns-Coen-Lochart River-Bamaga-Cairns
SKP61 Dash-8-100 VH-QQF Cairns-Mt Isa-Cairns
SKP9086 Dash-8-100 VH-QQG Brisbane-Cairns (Positioning flight)

Meanwhile, Skytrans last RPT service into Brisbane was on Wednesday 31 December:

SKP18 Dash-8-100 VH-QQG Brisbane-Toowoomba-Saint George-Cunnamulla-Thargomindah-Cunamulla-Saint George-Toowoomba-Brisbane.

Their last Fly-in Fly-out (FIFO) charter flight into Brisbane was on Friday 19 December:

SKP671 Dash-8-300 VH-QQP DH8C Brisbane-Miles-Brisbane.

The FNQ Skies Blog captured these images on Saturday 3 January of various Skytrans aircraft parked around and near the Skytrans Engineering facility at Cairns Airport:

Noted at Cairns were VH-QQA, VH-QQB, VH-QQC, VH-QQF, VH-QQG, VH-QQI and VH-QQM.

Dash-8-300s VH-QQN and VH-QQP remain at Brisbane Airport, while former Skytrans Dash-8-100s VH-QQD, VH-QQK and VH-QQL are operating out of Perth Airport with Maroomba Airlines whom they are leased to from Westpac.

Sincere thanks to the various sources for their assistance in preparing this post.

Friday 2 January was a sad for Australian aviation with the loss of a great Australian airline.

UPDATE!  As mentioned in the Blog posts above, West Wing Aviation have stepped in to operate Skytrans' routes into Cape York, while Corporate Air have picked up (at least) the FIFO charter operations in Clermont Areodrome.

Additional photos taken by the FNQ Skies Blog  ©

CQ Plane Spotting Historic Spot - MacAir Airlines

MacAir Airlines was established and started charter operations in 1992 as McKinlay Air Charters, adding scheduled services in 1998. In May 2000, the Collings family sold the airline to Transjet, owner of Transtate Airlines. The two brands were merged and operate under the MacAir name. In November 2003, MacAir acquired Horizon Airlines. MacAir grew to become a major player in Australia's regional aviation network and played an important role in providing transport to both passengers and freight throughout regional Queensland and northern New South Wales.  MacAir was based in Townsville, and staff were based in Townsville, Cairns, Mount Isa and Brisbane.

MacAir originally commenced operations flying charters for the mining developments that took place at the time in Western Queensland and, as the mines grew, so too did MacAir.  Most of the mines operated under a fly-in fly-out (FIFO) staffing arrangement, whereby management and crew that live elsewhere (mainly in coastal cities) fly in to the mine site to complete their working roster.

In 1998, MacAir introduced regular passenger transport (RPT) services on regional routes in Northern Queensland.  One of the busiest routes in MacAir’s RPT network of eventually 34 routes throughout regional Queensland and New South Wales, was the link between Townsville and Mount Isa.  MacAir serviced the route 32 times each week, with most of the flights being operated by their ATR 42-500, and others by their SAAB 340s (both types are pictured at Townsville Airport below). MacAir offered full cabin service on this 2-hour sector.

As the airline grew so did MacAir’s reputation for delivering safe, efficient, friendly, and cost effective air services to its clients, through its focus on customer service and its ability to identify and meet its customers’ needs in a timely manner.

As MacAir grew and opened more routes throughout regional Queensland, the airline secured several Queensland Government (Queensland Transport) contracts to operate subsidised air services to communities across the northern, western and gulf regions of Queensland.  

One such sector I took in the 2007 was from Townsville to Winton to Longreach and return in Metro 23 VH-UUB.

 As a valued Qantas commercial partner, MacAir had worldwide distribution through a hosting in the Qantas reservations system.  The introduction of the SAAB 340 lead to the signing of Qantas’ first domestic code share agreement.  This enabled Qantas to offer its customers seats on selected SAAB 340 flights.

However, MacAir started running into operational problems, with the Queensland Government receiving numerous complaints about delayed flights, cancellations or even the non-arrival of some scheduled flights.  MacAir itself even expressed concerns over fulfilling all of its services adequately.

The situation eventually came to a head when the Government announced MacAir would vary its contract with the Queensland Transport, meaning a new open tender for several of the air services that MacAir flew would be called. 

This signalled the beginning of the end for Macair and at the end of January in 2009, Macair went in voluntary administration. The administrators for MacAir asked the government for a one-off $7 million payment, not linked to performance, which was refused.  The company was wound up shortly after.

Ex-MacAir ATR 42-500 VH-UYJ is pictured parked at Cairns Airport being prepared for its eventual export to Norway.

Destinations At the end of January 2009 - MacAir operated to the following scheduled destinations - 

From Townsville to:  Mount Isa, Cloncurry, Winton, Longreach, Moranbah, Brisbane, Hughenden, Richmond, Julia Creek.

From Cairns to:  Mount Isa, Normanton, Mornington Island, Burketown, Doomadgee, Pormpuraaw (Edward River), Kowanyama.

From Brisbane to:  Moranbah, Townsville, Oakey, St George, Cunnamulla, Thargomindah, Charleville, Quilpie, Birdsville, Bedourie, Boulia, Mount Isa.

Also charter connections for mining companies from Townsville to:  Osborne, BHP's Cannington, Zinifex Century Mine

As of January 2009 the Macair Airlines fleet consists of the following aircraft:  1 ATR 42-500, 2 Fairchild SA227-DC Metro 23, 7 Saab 340B (six second generation 340B and one third generation 340B+).