Pacific Aviation

The individual companies that now form a part of Pacific are Stillwell Aviation, Ansett General Aviation, Aviall and Flight Facilities. Pacific Aviation is at the present time rationalising the spares and service areas of the component companies and is integrating the various computer networks into what will become a single computer network.

General Manager of Pacific Aviation is affable Robert Weekes, a young but highly capable ex-BHP Engineering Graduate, who has cut his teeth in field projects for that company both at home and in South East Asia.

Bob Weekes acknowledges that the corporate structure of the fledgling company is complex and that teething troubles have emerged while rationalisation is taking place, but he believes that all these initial headaches will soon be overcome. He is supremely confident in his ability to place the right people in key positions to ensure the best for Pacific Aviation and its new and inherited customers.

The company name ‘Pacific’ stems back to Trafield, a Consolidated Press Holdings company, in which Ansett acquired a 50% share in May 1983.

Stillwell Aviation is still, from a legal point of view, a separate entity, but it still is a Pacific subsidiary. Consolidated Press Holdings retains Aero-int which was known as Tradean Pty Ltd, and Aerospace International (Hong Kong), which have the agencies for Learjet, Swearingen, Saab-Fairchild and Agusta.

Pacific retains the Piper franchise, which was a part of Ansett General Aviation. The Company recently imported two exciting new aircraft, the Piper Mojave, a high-speed-cruise, turbocharged and pressurised twin, and the PÅ 46-310P Malibu, a beautiful pressurised cabin-class single, which seats six, and has a 1340 nm range with reserves. The Mojave is essentially a piston-engine Cheyenne, with intercooling, and it will sell here for around $700,000.

Although Bob Weekes admits freely he is a businessman primarily and is not likely to get caught up in the romance and hysteria that is a part of the aviation industry, he does say that he finds the Piper Malibu ‘sexy’, and foresees a bright future for it here, as he predicts lots of appeal as a corporate aircraft.

The team backing up Weekes at Pacific Aviation include Keith Fedrick, Assistant General Manager of Engineering, and based at Brisbane, Barry Marshall, Assistant General Manager Special Projects, and based at Bankstown, and Jim Bradley, as Maintenance and Engineering Manager.

Bradley is ex-Stillwell and is operating at Essendon. The facilities he controls are at Essendon, Sydney, Brisbane, and Piper-maintenance at Archerfield, Bankstown and Parafield.

Barry Marshall is also the Manager of the Aircraft Sales Division, and Operations Manager of the Aviation Products Division. It is actually the responsibility of Marshall to merge the four spares organisations and physically integrate the computer operations.

The manager of the Charter and Flight Operations division is Trevor Noblet, also ex-Ansett, based at Essendon. A high percentage of this charter work is armed forces special charter, including corporate charter. A BAe 125 Series 700 jet with a 4000-kilometre range is being operated by Charter and Flight Operations. Linked with this is the Terminals Division, managed capably by Steve Serepesos, the well-known former General Manager of Flight Facilities.

Total staff employed by Pacific Aviation is 200 persons, including 80 engineers and technical staff.

Speaking with Bob Weekes as he reflects back on his 20 years with BHP, it is obvious that the man is viewed as a problem solver by the Pacific Board. He was not actually approached by the company, but answered a newspaper advertisement for the position of General Manager. His biggest headache at the moment is the fact that customers have to deal with two organisations relating to sales and service, that is Pacific Aviation and Aerospace International. Bob sees a possible merger in the future for these two companies, further strengthening of management, and he predicts that if the situation doesn’t occur by equity, it will almost certainly happen de facto style, by way of relationship.

Pacific Aviation is unusual in that it has a very high degree of director involvement in day-to-day operations to ensure the success of the venture. The two men from the four-man board who are taking such a keen interest in the physical workings of the company are Rob Frost (from ATI) and Jacob Tarszisz, from CPH.

For those interested in the BAe 125, it’s registered VH-JCC, which are the initials of John Canning-Cooke, a person who was deeply involved in marketing the BAe 125 in Australia in the first instance. VH-JCC seats seven, and comes ready for charter with video, backgammon board, and a fully enclosed toilet.

Bob Weekes is aware of having to overcome a little resentment from some quarters due to a BAe 125 being operated by a company closely related to the one responsible for marketing and selling Gates Learjets in this country, but he believes the problem has a solution.

I ask Bob about long and short-range objectives for Pacific Aviation, and he tells me that there are seven of these at this stage. Pacific wishes to dominate the Australian GA market, it wants to succeed and expand, and to operate the best VIP and commuter terminals in the country, and have an efficient network of maintenance bases, offering a broad range of services, including avionics and engine overhaul. Pacific also desires to have the best spares operation in GA in this country, and have fully computerised operations in this regard. Finally Bob wants the charter side of the business to be developed so that when you think of corporate charter, you immediately think of PACIFIC AVIATION!

Editor’s note: Since closing for press Gates Learjet have decided to perform their own marketing efforts for Australasia, Oceania and SE Asia direct from an Auckland-based Gates representative. Pacific Aviation however, remain both Fairchild and Saab-Fairchild representatives.