On the Front Line

Its RPT airline, Hamilton-based Sharp Airlines took over from defunct regional airline O’Connor, which collapsed in 2007. In November, Sharp was forced to reduce its frequency of services between Adelaide and the Spencer Gulf city, as passenger loads on its Metro declined, in the face of competition from Rex and QantasLink, which both fly into nearby Whyalla from Adelaide, offering competition and more frequencies, and the downturn in the South Australian resources sector.

Consequently Sharp reduced its weekly Port Augusta schedule from 10 to seven return flights in November. Before the cut-back, Sharp was carrying about 11,000 passengers annually on its RPT service, with the airport claiming total annual passenger numbers of about 16,000.

But the regional airline has received some compensation, picking up some fly in/fly out (FIFO) work from Alliance when passenger loads to BHP Billiton’s Roxby Downs mine do not justify Fokker 50 flights.

And Sharp provides crews for uranium miner Heathgate’s Conquest with its twice-weekly FIFO services to the Beverley operation near Lake Frome.

Meanwhile, Alliance continues to operate through Port Augusta to Roxby Downs and the Prominent Hill mine of OZ Minerals, while transport group Toll has a daily freight service from Monday to Friday, and some ad hoc charters use the airport to refuel.

These include some outback air tour firms, such as Canberra-based Corporate Air which uses Port Augusta as its airfield for tourism ventures to the Flinders Ranges.

Port Augusta Airport’s manager, Shane Saal, believes this is a segment which can be developed further. However, he would like such services to include an overnight stay, to improve the economic benefits for the city. Present tourist coach transfers at the airport do not incorporate a visit to the city and its attractions, which include the Wadlata Outback Centre, the Urramunja Aboriginal art centre and the Australian Arid Lands botanic garden.

A potential customer for the airport is Rex, with Saal proposing that the regional airline adds Port Augusta to its Adelaide-Coober Pedy flights, to service mining industry and government employees based in the Spencer Gulf city.

“We think there’s a market for Port Augusta-Coober Pedy,” he says. “If Sharp’s business continues to deteriorate, it may pull out. Rex would be a logical replacement.”

No formal approach has been made to Rex but council management has put out feelers to the airline. Another possible prospect is Chinta Air, a family-owned aviation group which operates outback tours and charters, with a fleet of seven aircraft based at Ceduna, Adelaide and the Flinders Ranges tourist centre of Rawnsley Park – from which it offers sightseeing flights over the ranges and out to Lake Eyre.

From its home base at Ceduna, it takes tourists out to the head of Great Australian Bight on whale-watching jaunts.

From Port Augusta, Chinta flies the world’s longest mail run – a 2,500km weekly round trip with a Navajo to pastoral properties along the Birdsville Track and on to Glengyle Station, overnighting at Birdsville on the way back.

However, while the previous contractor, Westwing, sold seats to tourists on its Commander, the present contract is “strictly mail only,” Chinta management says. As it adjusts to the lack of FIFO work, it has no interest in adding tourist services through Port Augusta at present.

The mainstay of Port Augusta Airport is the Royal Flying Doctor Service’s base, with a separate facility there and a 24-hour aeromedical service.

The RFDS Central Operations has three Pilatus PC-12s stationed at Port Augusta, and a workforce of about 40, including seven pilots, eight flight nurses and four doctors, plus a parttime local GP registrar.

It services an area of about 840,000 square kilometres from the recentlyredeveloped base, which originally opened in 1956, and runs emergency retrieval flights as well as operating health clinics into remote communities and hospital transfers.

Central Operations general manager of marketing, Charlie Patterson, says the Port Augusta aircraft transported 1,810 patients in 2014-15 and took medical staff to 1059 outback medical and health clinics. Total “patient contacts” for the busy RFDS hubs was 12,327 for the financial year.

Now the Department of Defence looms as an important customer. Airport manager Saal has hopes for regular military flights, following two C-130 trial flights, using the 1,650m sealed runway (15/33), which is 30m wide, to assess the use of the airport for delivering troops to the Cultana Training Area, between Port Augusta and Whyalla.

The first trial was a refuelling exercise, using a C-130J to test a new system, which involved pairs of Black Hawk helicopters taking fuel from the transport aircraft.

The second was a full-scale trial, with a direct flight from Darwin to Port Augusta to off-load troops from Darwin in full combat gear. A fleet of 18 Bushmaster vehicles ferried them to Cultana.

The Department of Defence is spending about $80 million to upgrade Cultana and its El Alamein camp, following the area’s recent expansion from 50,000 hectares to 209,300 hectares, for a variety of training exercises, primarily for the Darwinbased 1st Brigade and its now RAAF Base Edinburgh-based 7th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, but also other units.

The major expansion of Cultana is expected to result in year-round exercises, including one involving up to 10,000 personnel planned for 2016. Flying troops direct into Port Augusta avoids a 300km bus trip from Edinburgh.

Saal says the two C-130 flights were “pretty encouraging” for the airport, although he admits to “a bit of an issue” with handling the big aircraft at the terminal, because of the relatively small apron.

“But the C-130’s ability to reverse in or out of the terminal area resolved that,” he says. And Port Augusta City Council is expected to consider improvements to accommodate C-130s, if the airport can attract regular DoD flights.

To improve the airport’s appeal, a new, air-conditioned passenger terminal with seating for 68 people was built at a cost of $1.22 million in 2014, with federal and state government financial support. It opened in February 2015. The airport’s aviation facilities include pilot-activated lighting for its runway, taxiway and apron for night flights, and a non-directional navigation beacon, which is maintained by Airservices.

Flying troops direct into Port Augusta avoids a 300km bus trip from Edinburgh.