Commercial Aircraft Sales

The Civil Aviation Authority as we know it will cease to exist on July 1 this year and be replaced with CASA (dealing with safety and regulatory functions and essentially what DASR is today) and Air Services Australia, which will be responsible for air traffic services, air navigation facilities, search and rescue, firefighting and aeronautical information services. Air Services Australia will operate as a government business enterprise (with only search and rescue services directly funded by the government) and CASA will operate as a non-commercial statutory authority.

Far Out!

Scale Aircraft Consortium have produced an excellent model of the Lockheed Constellation Southern Preservation which hopefully will arrive in Australia in a few weeks time. When the company took their model for a viewing by the Qantas board the marketing gurus questioned whether or not it was a smart idea to have the name Qantas associated with the famous airliner. One even asked “what is a Constellation?” The in-touch marketing gurus then felt that the famous airliner was not worth including officially in the coming 75th birthday celebrations as it was “not a significant aircraft important type in the airline’s development”. Far out!

New Electra Freight Operation

Melbourne based Charrack Air is importing two Lockheed L-188C Electras to operate a new freight network. The new airline is planning to commence freight services in south and eastern Australia from July. Miller Technologies was approached by a major international freight forwarding company two years ago to put together an air freight operation to fill a perceived need for a new Australian freight operation, resulting in the formation of Charrack Air.

The first Electra will be registered VH-CHD and is due to arrive in Australia in mid-June, while the second, VH-CHM, will arrive in November. Both are sourced from Detroit based Zantop International Airlines. The aircraft will be based in Melbourne, and Charrack will undertake its own maintenance, except for major checks which will be performed by Air New Zealand. The Electra is no stranger to Australian skies, having been operated by Ansett and TAA from 1959 through to the early 1970s. Ansett Air Freight continued Electra operations for another decade until 1984.

Ansett To Retire F28s

Ansett Australia has announced plans to expand and accelerate its fleet renewal programme following discussions with Minister for Transport Laurie Brereton about reducing noise at Sydney Airport. The major part of the programme is the early retirement of five Fokker F28-1000 and -3000 aircraft by the end of the year. These aircraft comply with the old Stage 2 noise requirements, but other Ansett Stage 2 aircraft (seven F28-4000s and five Boeing 727-200s) are scheduled to remain in service until 2002, although this might be brought forward. The phasing out of the Fokkers will reduce F28 movements through Sydney from 86 to 48 per week from May this year and to eight per week by the end of the year. Boeing 727 flights will be cut from 124 to 74 per week.

Ansett will make up for the lost capacity by acquiring another Boeing 767 and a 737-300 originally intended for leasing associate AWAS. Ansett also has five Airbus A320s on order for delivery between 1995 and 1998, and these might replace the 727s. Other KSA noise abatement measures which have been agreed to include extending takeoff rolls, climbing more steeply, increasing the maximum downwind component for takeoffs to 10 knots and complying with set corridors around Sydney.

Some Asta Jobs Saved

The number of jobs to be lost at ASTA Aircraft Services’ (ASTAAS) Avalon base (refer Newsdesk this issue) has been reduced from the originally planned 200 to 160. The redundancies have resulted from a lack of work at ASTAAS but the 40 jobs which have been saved stem from there being more work involved in servicing the next aircraft due into the workshop (a BA 747) than had been originally anticipated. Of the 160 to lose their jobs, 40 are white collar workers and the remainder blue collar.

Singapore Bases In Australia?

The Department of Defence and the Singapore Government are examining proposals to base Singaporean jets at RAAF Amberley and a squadron of helicopters at the Army Aviation Corps’ Oakey headquarters. The Amberley proposal involves about 20 Singaporean A-4 Skyhawk attack aircraft and up to 280 ground support personnel and their families moving to the area. Up to 700 Singapore nationals could eventually be located in the Brisbane and Ipswich areas. Singapore also wants to base a squadron of 12 Super Puma helicopters at Oakey along with about 500 people including staff and dependants.

The proposals include the construction of new facilities to cope with the increased population in the areas involved and further strengthen defence ties between the two countries. Singapore already has access to a number of ADF training facilities and in 1993 established a flying training school at RAAF Pearce. Under an agreement signed in 1992, Singapore has training access to Amberley and to RAAF Darwin.