Air South

But Air South owner and senior pilot Michael Kohn, 37, is unabashed about the claim.

“We’re also South Australia’s only regional airline,” he adds, with a chuckle.

Regional Express (Rex) dominates the state’s passenger routes, and Sharp Airlines picked up two of failed O’Connor Airlines’s routes, while Air South only serves Kangaroo Island with RPT flights, but neither competitor is a local.

Being local has been one of the keys to success for Air South, Kohn says. It has enabled the airline to spot potential new markets quickly, and present its credentials at an early stage of development.

Further growth is expected this year, with the company planning to add a second Beech 1900D to its fleet, but Kohn is wary of competitors in a tough industry and is not prepared to discuss the potential new business yet.

Air South was founded in Adelaide in 1993 in the wake of the disastrous domestic pilots’ dispute, which curtailed the opportunities for many Australian flightcrew as Ansett and Australian Airlines turned to the recruitment of overseas pilots.

Michael Kohn and two newly-graduated fellow pilots, who had trained together at the Ross Flying Centre at Adelaide’s Parafield Airport, realised after about six months of unsuccessfully searching for work that they would have to look elsewhere to build up experience and flying hours.

“It all looked pretty dismal,” Kohn recalls.

So the three pilots pooled their resources to hire an aircraft for scenic flights and ad hoc charters, such as flying people to country shows and punters to country race meetings.

They called their outfit Air South, not simply because it was formed in South Australia but as an ironic riposte to the flying school’s advice that they should all find jobs with expanding Airnorth when they graduated.

After about a year the partnership split up, but Kohn decided to keep Air South flying, seeking both passenger and freight work.

“The turning point came in 1995, when we won a fly-in/fly-out contract with Heathgate Resources for its Beverley uranium project,” he said.

Air South chartered a Cessna 402 for the weekly service, which gave the little aviation company a base for expansion.

Then came a daily newspaper run to Port Lincoln and Kangaroo Island for News Ltd’s publications.

Carrying exploration teams out to the remote Challenger gold site, northwest of Tarcoola, provided the insight to development of the Dominion Mining project, now a thriving gold mine, and Challenger remains a regular destination for Air South.

The progress on the contract is denoted by the aircraft types employed – the original 10-passenger Cessna Titan gave way to a 15-passenger Bandeirante and now a 19-passenger Beech 1900D.

The new aircraft,VH-ZOA (pictured above), joined the Air South fleet in January from the United States through a lease from South Africa’s Awesome Aviation’s Perth-based division, and is dedicated to the Challenger fly-in/fly-out service.

“We’ll be looking for another 1900D within the next few months for our expansion plans,” Kohn says. That, too, is likely to come through an Awesome Aviation lease. In other resources industry services, the company resumed services for Healthgate while the mining company’s own aircraft was undergoing major maintenance this year, has gained ad hoc work for BHP Billiton’s giant Olympic Dam operation, and also won some work from Oxiana (now OZ Minerals) in the early stages of the $1 billion Prominent Hill copper-gold project near Coober Pedy, although Alliance is the operator for both ventures now.

Outback drilling and contractor teams also have provided work throughout South Australia, including the Cooper Basin oil and gas province, and in its resources industry work Air South has operated as far afield as Exmouth and Newmont’s Telfer gold mine in Western Australia.

But Air South has operations in several commercial fields. For instance, during the season from November to May it flies four or five nights a week from Port Lincoln to Adelaide Airport carrying live lobster for fast transfer to international flights into Asia.

“We pick the lobsters up at 5. 30am and they’re on Chinese dinner tables within 18 hours,” Kohn says.

Air South ended a previous relationship with the Qantas-Australia Post joint venture Australian air Express, but carries freight for transport giant Toll Holdings on its RPT flights to Kangaroo Island, as well as continuing its nightly newspaper runs to the island and Port Lincoln, for distribution on the Eyre Peninsula.

It also gains some state government work – including flights to carry firefighters to bushfires for the Country Fire Service.

Another niche is flying jockeys from Adelaide to country race meetings, particularly Port Lincoln, using the Bandeirante.

Loading the aircraft is easy, jokes pilot Matt Dietman. “All the passengers weigh about 54 kilos. ” Air South has dropped its recreational flight training at Parafield, bowing out of a difficult market, but conducts advanced instrument training for pilots from Adelaide Airport.

In early 2007, following the withdrawal of QantasLink services between Adelaide and Kingscote on Kangaroo Island, Air South moved on to the route in competition with Regional Express. That move proved successful and the company now operates four return services daily to the island, using a 10-passenger Cessna Titan on its only RPT route.

“We do carry a few tourists but it’s pitched almost 100 per cent at the local community and its requirements,” Kohn says. He considered a similar service between Adelaide and Port Lincoln after QantasLink withdrew, but decided to leave the business to Rex for the moment.

“We may look at other destinations, including Port Lincoln, but not in the present economic climate,” he says.

Meanwhile, there are prospects of more resource work, although Kohn has no illusions about any sudden surge in contracts.

“Those projects have long lead times,“ he says. But Air South keeps a close watch on progress at various projects around the state.

The airline has spread its wings beyond its home state into Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia with ad hoc charters, but it has no plans to expand its presence interstate.

“South Australia’s big enough – there’s work to be found here. ” Kohn’s objective is steady organic growth, with his close-knit team of about 20 people, including 10 pilots, and fleet of eight aircraft – the Beech 1900D, the Bandeirante, four Titans, a Beech Baron used mostly for instrument training, and a Piper Chieftain. Air South had six Chieftains at one stage and is considering the future of its last example. Although Kohn has no immediate plans to sell it, the likely lease of a second 1900D could end the Chieftain’s usefulness.

Meanwhile, he has recruited a new chief pilot, Rob White, from CASA (and before that, Kendell Airlines).

Air South continues to consolidate its position as a leading South Australian operator, and to increase its income. The company’s annual revenues jumped more than 20 per cent to reach $4 million in 2006, a boom year, and had risen to $5. 9 million in 2008-2009. This financial year, it is on target to reach $7 million.

Despite the present economic downturn, Kohn remains positive about the future.

“We’re happy with the way we’re going and the outlook is good. There’s never a dull moment in this business. ”

“South Australia’s big enough – there’s work to be found here. ”