Airlines target new horizons

Airlines servicing Western Australia continue to reap the benefits of the state’s resources boom, as demand for transport into the regions grows and capacity increases to unprecedented levels.

WA-based charter and regular passenger carrier, Skywest Airlines, recently announced an after-tax profit for the half-year to December 2007 of $5.1 million, an increase of 46.6 per cent on the previous corresponding period.

The result was on the back of a 13 per cent increase in passenger numbers and a 139 per cent increase in charter services for the year to January 2008.

Skywest Airlines chief executive Paul Daff said the company had grown significantly during the past year, increasing staff numbers from 270 to 370 and lifting its number of jet aircraft to seven, in addition to its seven turbo props. He said the major growth in revenue and profits has come from fly-in fly-out services and mining charters.

“We’re working hard on building more contracts with FIFO but also focusing on our bread and butter [regular passenger transport] routes,” Mr Daff told Business Class.

The airline expects to take delivery of larger aircraft later in the year and is assessing the possibility of adding services into Asia.

It is also considering more services from the east coast directly into the regions, adding to its current Melbourne-Kalgoorlie service.

“We believe there are opportunities from the eastern states in the Pilbara,” Mr Daff said.

“As WA struggles to get more human resources, we have to look more and more to the eastern states.”

Qantas also rates WA as one of its biggest growth markets.

Last month, the airline announced the latest in its string of additional services in WA, adding extra flights between Perth and Broome, Kalgoorlie, Karratha, Newman and Port Hedland, starting from June.

The new services will add 1,150 seats a week on Perth-Port Hedland flights, 690 extra seats a week on Perth-Broome flights and 460 extra seats per week on Perth-Newman flights.

Qantas regional general manager Western Australia, Ian Gay, said the upgraded services would take the number of return jet flights to those regional destinations to 141.

Mr Gay said the majority of capacity growth in the WA market was to service the resources industry in the Pilbara region, while flights into the Kimberley region were in response to demand from business and leisure travellers.

“Most of the capacity growth has been led by working through and helping get capacity up for the resources companies, but tourism is certainly a factor in the Kimberley,” he said.

Mr Gay said the growth on the intrastate WA market had been significant and was being experienced by all airlines that serviced the state.

“Going back two to three years, most companies probably weren’t prepared for the growth rates we’ve been having over the past three years,” Mr Gay told Business Class.

Qantas is looking at a number of changes to its east-west operation in the second half of the year, including further direct links between east coast cities and the WA regions similar to its Brisbane-Karratha service.

But with rapid growth comes a number of challenges.

Perth Airport has been struggling to keep up with the unprecedented growth in passenger numbers through its terminals, with its forecasts for passenger numbers for 2025 now expected to be bought forward 10 years, to 2015.

In addition to infrastructure, staffing pressures, in particular pilot shortages, are putting pressure on the industry.

Skywest’s Paul Daff said that, while the airline hadn’t yet cancelled flights due to a lack of pilots, as has been the case with some of its eastern states counterparts, the issue had hampered the company’s growth.

Pilot availability in WA could be improved, however, by the establishment of a new pilot base by low-cost carrier Jetstar during the next two years.

The base will provide the airline with access to WA-based pilots, cabin crew and airport staff to service its east-west routes, as well as its links from Perth into Asia.

A Jetstar spokesperson said the opening of another base was in line with the expansion to the airline’s short-haul fleet, with parent company Qantas last year announcing that an additional 68 narrow-bodied aircraft would be delivered to Jetstar services over the next 10 years.

“While we currently only have two flights from Perth to Melbourne...[Perth] has been on our radar for quite some time,” the spokesperson said.