Survival of the adaptable

Commercial aviation is highly regulated, with auditors of one form or another frequently on operators’ doorsteps.

Operators understand their responsibilities, but need to apply considerable time and resources to ensure all regulatory and safety standards are exceeded.

On the other hand, there may be a new dawn for some parts of regional aviation.

Australia is once again turning to its regions and the bush to grow its wealth. The city-centric manufacturing base is unfortunately shrinking, but not so the resources and agriculture sectors, with the latter finally emerging from 10 years of drought induced pain.

Routes to the mining centres are strengthening, as is charter in support of further resource exploration and the subsequent construction phase. If the agricultural recovery is sustained, local councils may once again be speaking to regional operators about new routes, reopening old ones or growing capacity. There are some promising green shoots emerging.

The aviation tourism sector is doing it tough though, with inbound tourists declining due to the high Aussie dollar. Still, the spectacular water flows across the outback are attracting wildlife in abundance, and also the tourists who want a once in a lifetime experience. This may ease the pain for some in a specialised sector under pressure.

Demand for pilots, engineers and other aviation professionals is steady, particularly for those willing to move to regional areas. If China’s growth remains relatively high and India continues to emerge economically, the regional aviation sector could be in for a busy time.

Fuel prices may have peaked, but the next surge is never far away. Hedging is not common among most regional operators, so price increases can have a savage effect on the bottom line. Fuel price trends are monitored forensically by operators, and hopefully there will be some relief in the months ahead.

There have been spectacular advances in avionics with new generation glass screens arriving on the market, but retrofitting regional aircraft with the new kit is not cheap. It may all look fantastic once installed, but someone has to sign the cheques, and it is an upfront sunk cost. These questions are exercising the minds of quite a number of regional CEOs.

In addition, new regional airliners are entering the market, all competing to be more fuel efficient and reliable than their competitors.

Such aircraft cost millions, and tend to operate on the busier regional routes. New regional routes are mostly opened up by tried and true earlier model aircraft that can bear economically the wide load variations often experienced in the early days of servicing a new port.

The bottom line is that Australia is growing, albeit with a possible over-reliance on the resources sector. However, it is still a large country with a widely dispersed population that needs to interact economically and socially. Australians tend to ignore distance because they must, and the sterling efforts of regional operators have reinforced this view.

There is no doubt that regional aviation is now essential transport infrastructure, and must be seen as such by policy makers. This includes the invisible but highly sophisticated air routes supported by constellations of GPS satellites. The new air routes will mean shorter tracks, less holding and less fuel burn. Good news all round, including for the environment.

The fly in the ointment will be the capacity of some airports to cope with demand.

The airports’ challenge is to increase infrastructure investment without increasing prices to an extent that will slow the aviation growth the new infrastructure is designed to support.

Airports must not lose sight of the fact that their customers are also regional operators, and not just the mainline carriers.

Aviation, and regional aviation in particular, is always dynamic. As in nature, it is not the strongest but the most adaptable that will survive. n Australian Aviation is proud to be the official supporting journal of the Regional Aviation Association of Australia. The views in this column are those of the RAAA, and not necessarily Australian Aviation’s.