Western Australian airline Skywest Ltd will spend $600,000 to upgrade the global positioning systems on its Fokker 50 fleet in an effort to enhance its ability to compete for mining charter work.
Skywest believe the upgrade will provide the Fokker 50 fleet with a more proficient GPS / Flight Management System.
The decision was based on the desire to acquire capability to perform FMS-GPS approaches at a greater variety of airports associated with resource industry locations along with the future phasing out of ground based navigational aids.
Skywest said the upgrade would also provide improvements in its ability to service Monkey Mia, Kalbarri and The Granites airports, which do not have ground based navigational approaches.
The upgrade will be funded from operating cash flows and will use up a large proportion of the capital expenditure planned for the 2006-2007 financial year.
The news follows Skywest's announcement that it had commenced providing a charter service in January to The Granites mine site, located in the Northern Territory, for Newmont Mining staff. A letter of intention was executed for the provision of the charter service for a four-year period, with expected annual revenue for Skywest of approximately $3.2 million.
Skywest also announced it had been confirmed as the exclusive licence holder to operate services on the coastal network of Western Australia. The right is for a term of three years with an option for a further two-year extension and represents approximately 70 per cent of Skywest's passenger numbers.
The company recently announced strong half-yearly results, headlined by a 948 per cent pre-tax increase in net profit.
The state's major regional airline's pre-tax profit increased from $102,394 to $1,072,719 for the six months to December 31 2005.
