On The Go

“I grew up on a farm near Coonabarabran in Western NSW and my father had a seed and grain business that was hard dirty work, so I figured out pretty early on that this was not going to be my destiny. Whilst still at school I learnt to fly in a Victa Airtourer at the Coonabarabran Aero Club with John Henry, a WW2 Lancaster pilot.

“A school friend, Ron Evans, was passionate about becoming an aircraft engineer, so I figured why not and applied to East West Airlines. Ron and I got interviews and while waiting for Ron I walked over to the old Tamair hangar and straight out asked the chief engineer for a job.”

Back then in 1977 the industry was a friendlier place that welcomed people with optimism and Bredereck got his job as an apprentice on $51 a week. He supplemented the income with flying jobs for gliding clubs and skydivers, leading to the opportunity in 1979 to purchase his first aircraft – a Cessna Stationair – that he used for skydiving.

When he finished his apprenticeship, Bredereck found himself without a job, but found casual work (“some might say very casually”) as a flying mechanic in aerial ag while supplementing his hours still carrying skydivers on weekends.

“I bought my own Cessna 182, and then a Cessna 180 followed by a Cessna 206 and progressed to also flying a Beech Baron for Singh’s Aircharter.

“In 1985 I got wind that the ‘old Tamair’ (which was the company that eventually went on to become Eastern Australia Airlines and today part of Qantaslink) was having financial difficulties, so along with another local pilot, Bert Abbott, concocted a scheme to buy the GA business that consisted of a Cessna 152, a 210 and a Piper Seneca. Over the next decade we built the business to include flight training, charter, freight and RPT operations.”

By the end of the decade. Bredereck had built Tamair into a credible regional carrier that held the primary market share on the Sydney-Tamworth run.

“However, we could not expand in NSW due to the air routes all being regulated, so to expand we wet-leased a bunch of aircraft into Tasmania which turned out to be a $4.2m disaster,” Bredereck admitted, recalling what he sees today as one of his greatest learning experiences. The losses suffered in Tasmania were exacerbated by an issue perennially facing regional airlines today, but which in the end contributed significantly to the ultimate demise of Tamair.

“In 1997 the Tamworth City Council decided to change the way it charged landing fees and passenger taxes from a combination of weight based landing fee and a passenger head tax, to just a passenger head tax. These changes were designed to increase Tamworth City Council’s revenue by about 10 per cent, but the net affect was it had little impact on Eastern Australia Airlines’ charges (because their Dash 8s were heavier) but had a disproportionately higher effect on Tamair.”

“To expand we wet-leased a bunch of aircraft into Tasmania which turned out to be a $4.2m disaster.”

Still struggling to recover from the Tasmanian losses, the new airport charging regime added around $260,000 a year to the airline’s costs.

“The price-sensitive market reacted to the increases which saw revenues also drop by about $240,000 per year. So in effect the net cost to Tamair was about $500,000 per year, which proved to be the cash the company needed to trade out of its Tasmanian fiasco,” Bredereck recalled.

Ultimately Tamair was placed into administration and liquidated.

In his recently-completed history of Tamair, Bredereck wrote: “Tamair succumbed to the fate of many other regional aviation businesses and airlines in Australia; a young inexperienced entrepreneur business owner, a lack of capital, excessive charges at many airports and very marginal price-sensitive markets. Tamair also faced formidable competition from a high calibre well-resourced competitor with Qantaslink.

“At its peak, Tamair’s scheduled passenger and freight operations extended from Hobart in the South to Brisbane in the North and West to Adelaide. Combined with RPT and bank runs serviced over 30 towns each day. We also had for a period in 1994 and 1995 Metros on contract in Malaysia conducting freight and charter throughout South East Asia.”

Leaving behind the airline he owned, built up and ultimately grew beyond its financial means, Bredereck sought refuge in continuing his love of flying.

“For the next couple of years I went back to my roots fixing light aircraft, some charter and ferry flights around the world.”

It was on those long lonely legs delivering aircraft that Bredereck, using his background as an engineer, decided there must be a better way to train aircraft engineers.

“The system of training at the time relied on young people gaining their skills through unstructured on the job experience, with licences gained by passing somewhat dated formal exams set by the regulator but without any actual formal training requirement nor any requirement to demonstrate competence.

“Initially, I set up a small engineering RTO in Tamworth. However I developed a revolutionary training system with a curriculum based on the JAR 147 standards (now EASA) but utilising competency based training, and a greater focus on developing cognitive disciples. For the first time in Australia our basic training program leveraged the national training package funding but led to a licence outcome under the Part 66 regulations. This was a hard slog that faced quite a deal of resistance from the NSW establishment.”

This was the genesis for what would become one of Australia’s most high-profile aviation training organisations.

“In 2001 the Queensland Government decided to establish an ‘Aerospace Centre of Excellence’ to ensure a sustainable supply of skilled people for the growing aerospace industry in the State. Initially I approached them to see if I could introduce my training system, instead I was offered the job to establish the organisation that became Aviation Australia.

“Today, Aviation Australia as a result of the efforts of many people and the support of the Queensland Government is regarded as one of the leading basic aircraft maintenance training organisations in the world. It has been instrumental in developing new aircraft maintenance training systems, technologies and standards. Aviation Australia now has a global presence delivering commercial training to airlines and aerospace companies around the world.

In what Bredereck sees as being the start of a major shift in Aviation Australia’s future directions was the Queensland government’s decision to place Aviation Australia on the market in late 2006.

“This sale process took nearly two years before ultimately failing. The uncertainty caused during the process was very debilitating for staff, customers and other stakeholders.

“However by 2010 Aviation Australia had made significant progress rebuilding the trust of its customers and had good long-term contracts in place with several Middle Eastern clients which today still underpin the viability of the organisation.

“Also by 2010, I had developed and was ready to launch higher education degree level pathways for aircraft engineering management, and had finally gained government consent to launch revolutionary new pilot training programs.”

It was at this point Bredereck entered one of the roughest phases in his career as a passionate advocate of aviation training skills.

“In early 2010 the Queensland government appointed a new board, which I felt actively undermined management. These tensions led to my departure from the company in September of that year. Subsequently the entire management team that was so instrumental in Aviation Australia’s success also resigned.”

The disappointment still bites, but Bredereck’s achievements in the formative years of Aviation Australia have created a legacy for Australia’s aviation industry that would be poorer without them.

Perspectives

As he looks to the furthest horizons of Australia where the mining businesses are booming and Bredereck is steering JetGo towards its second year of profit, he reflects on the industry of which he has been a part in one way or another for coming on 50 years.

“It is certainly a tough business. Everybody seems to have their hand in your pocket, in particular the fees and charges are disproportionately high.

“Obviously regional councils need to fund the upkeep of their airports, but often these costs combined with all the other regulatory costs like security make it very difficult. **********Councils & airport owners just don’t get how sensitive these markets are. ********** They think $2 or $3 is nothing, but in reality it maybe the difference in whether they have an oncologist or cardiologist service in their community.

“Access to Sydney and Brisbane are also major issues due to capacity constraints. Reinstating the regional slots at Sydney, or even exempting regional aircraft that can meet noise requirement from the cap would be good. Getting Badgerys Creek finally started. Giving Brisbane a hand to fund the new runway.

“Councils and airport owners just don’t get how sensitive these markets are.”

“Personally I don’t blame the Government for neglect, as the regional airline industry is essentially private enterprise, nobody puts a gun to your head and says you need to run regional air services, however we provide very valuable community service obligations and like all businesses we deserve to operate in a fair environment.

“When monopoly providers can use aeronautical assets for non-aviation purposes, such as loss of runways at Bankstown and possibly Archerfield at the detriment of the industry it is not a level playing field. When monopoly providers can put annual ratchet increases on airport leases etc that are twice CPI it is not a level playing field. For example those extra little charges don’t just hurt the airline, they hurt the whole of regional communities, less services, less tourism and so it goes on.”

Unsurprisingly, Bredereck sees regulatory issues and compliance as a major hurdle.

“In particular regulations that are uniquely Australian and the inconsistent application of those regulations between different offices. The ERJ-135/145 family of aircraft has over 23 million flight hours without a single major accident or fatality, yet we routinely have our staff dealing with trivia because some inspector has his own particular interpretation. This not only costs us a huge amount of time and money, it also diverts our resource away from safety oversight and effectively running the operation.

“We should harmonise our regulations with our global partners and remove the unique legalese drafting of those regulations. It would simplify compliance by industry and simplify enforcement by CASA.

“The one thing that strikes me most is ********the current relationship between industry and CASA is the lowest I have seen it in nearly 37 years.********

“Many CASA inspectors have very little respect for operators and in some cases are downright antagonistic, likewise respect from operators towards CASA is in my humble opinion also at an all time low.

Apart from the big boys the vast majority of operators in the aviation industry are small to medium enterprises. They are people who have invested their lives in their business, they have mortgaged their houses and their futures in the businesses, they have employees, suppliers, communities and other businesses depend on them, yet at the whim of a CASA inspector they can be shut down, issued safety alerts over minor administrative errors, or even based upon hearsay from former staff or competitors.

“We need to re-build the trust and relationships with the regulators and service providers, in so doing we will increase safety, increase productivity and reduce a lot of stress in all our lives.

On other issues, Bredereck’s views differ from the chorus of pessimism that besets the industry.

***********I don’t think the industry is as sick as many would have us believe*************

“I am not sure skills shortages are really a bigger problem than in 1977. It is just that culturally the industry has changed. Certainly the administrative and regulatory barriers have put a lot of MROs off hiring apprentices, however, there is still a fair crop of young people coming through with good basic skills. There are solid institutions for basic and more advanced training, but the biggest challenge facing us in the next decade is experience.

“As a result of a number of events, including the closure of East-West Airlines and Ansett we saw a lot of very experienced people become available. Coincidentally just in time to support the rise of the FIFO operators, but now we are now seeing signs that pool of talent has finally been exhausted.”

Given his passion for training, Bredereck’s views challenge industry to make it more open and accessible if it is to attract future generations.

“The fact that since 9/11 our airports and cockpits are not friendly places to the public is a huge barrier. It is no longer sufficient to expect a young guy to walk into your hangar and ask for a job, or even work experience. Mostly they would not get past security even if they got up the courage to go out to the airport.
But aviation is still a terrific industry and a great career, although maybe not as personal and intimate as it once was.”

Asked whether enough is being done at the broader level to make the industry attractive, Bredereck said his experiences in Queensland were a palpable demonstration of what can be achieved with visible government leadership.

“Queensland, Victoria & Western Australia have all made significant investments in aviation training, and continue to do so. Setting up Aviation Australia and subsequently Aviation High (plus subsequent spin offs) represented significant foresight and commitment by the Queensland Government. Premier Beattie was a huge champion for our industry and frankly without that commitment Australian aviation would be in dire straits today, I think it is pretty obvious that the 1,200 or so additional apprentices and trainees that have been injected into the industry in the last decade by Aviation Australia has been very significant.”

On his own experiences, Bredereck encourages others use the benefits of his successes and failures.

“I trust my gut a lot more. I no longer procrastinate once an answer is obvious. I put a ruler over all decisions. ‘Is this decision going to add value to our business? Will it improve the experience of our customers? Will it add risk now or sometime downstream? Will it add complexity? And will it add value to society, the community or the industry?’”

“I place enormous value on loyalty. And most importantly I now put family and friends first.”

Bredereck freely admits family has taken a back seat at times, a casualty of the intensity of airline management and ownership, and then as a CEO.

“Family has certainly suffered. My first wife thought I had a mistress. In reality the only mistress I had was Tamair, I did not have enough energy left over for her let alone another woman! My current wife has also put up with a lot. Making Aviation Australia success involved a lot of travel, which was hard on her.

“For a lot of years I was simply too busy and going too fast to spend the time building and maintaining relationships outside of work. That was a mistake,” he said frankly.

From his decades in the industry and with successes and setbacks, some self-created, Bredereck proffered the 10 principles that guide him in business today, many of which, he suggested, could be adopted by others:

1) Trust your gut! (If something looks and smells like dog poo you don’t need a consultant to tell you to taste it!)
2) Seek out mentors. In my case I had a few; the late Keith Singh, Don Kendell, Bob Wilson, Jim Mengersen and many others helped me enormous at different times in my career.
3) Study, study and study. Learn everything you can.
4) Pay attention, ask plenty of questions and listen carefully, because quite often the most valuable information is what is not said.
5) Maintain your skills.
6) Do it by the book… particularly when fixing or flying aircraft, and keep good records.
7) Take time to build and maintain relationships.
8) Don’t be a dickhead.
9) Treat every customer as though they are a guest in your own home.
10) There is no substitute for respect.

Would he ever own an airline again?

“In a heart beat! I love this industry and love the people in it. I feel that it’s my briar patch and where I am truly comfortable.”

Break-out box

JETGO

“Undoubtedly the resources sector has been a huge savior to the aviation industry following 9/11 and the Ansett collapse, but equally the resources sector would not be where it is today with a strong aviation industry.

“I also need to make it clear that JETGO is not focused on the FIFO market, sure we operate two jets on FIFO work in Queensland, and we may well do more FIFO work in the future.
“Where we see JETGO is in a very specific niche and that niche is the sub 50 seat market between 400 and 2,000km. Who or what we carry is not confined to any particular sector.

The sub-400 km markets are turboprop country and well serviced in Australia by many very capable operators. The 70-seat and over market is also very well serviced in Australia by many good operators.

“We have very carefully and deliberately focused on a very specific requirement. We have developed a very strong capability with the ERJ-135/145 family and we have a very low cost base which allows us a lot of margin to work with, rather than take on, other operators.”