Niche Operator

His target is a niche market for smaller aircraft – led by the existing fleet of two 30-passenger Embraer EMB 120 Brasilias and three 19-passenger Beechcraft 1900Ds. The group also has five Cessna 441 Conquests, capable of carrying up to 10 passengers but also with a VIP configuration of six seats for corporate work.

Rossair, founded by local businessman Ross Tilley at Adelaide’s general aviation Parafield Airport in 1963, and now owned by a group of investors, claims to be Australia’s “second oldest continually operating air transport company” after Qantas.

Its operations include private VIP charters for corporate clients, and ad hoc charters as well as FIFO services for several mining companies.

Its capabilities have been strengthened by the acquisition of Adelaide-based Air South in 2013 and long-standing Perth aviation group Ad Astral Aviation, founded by WA aviation veteran Captain Ron Magrath, last year.

The three aviation groups are being brought under the single Rossair brand, with Ad Astral (from the Latin “to the stars”) having applied to ASIC to deregister its name last year and now awaiting a final CASA decision to amalgamate.

Puvanendran says Rossair reached agreement to merge the Ad Astral business and its FIFO contracts in the middle of last year, to enable the two companies to consolidate and expand their operations.

The expansion moves have included the acquisition in 2014 and 2015 of two Brasilias previously operated on FIFO services by Network Aviation, before its takeover by Qantas. They have been moved to Adelaide, with two later model Beechcraft 1900Ds based in Perth, after offloading older aircraft.

Meanwhile Rossair is negotiating the purchase of a third Brasilia in the United States.

“Over the next 12 to 18 months, we will be looking to further increase our fleet size,” Puvanendran says. Options include a small to medium-sized jet, which could be employed on sub-contracting work with bigger FIFO operators such as Cobham and Alliance.“We don’t want to compete with the likes of Cobham, but we do want to support them.”
In his sights is work now done by older aircraft, such as Cobham BAe 146s, which will need replacement before long.

However, he admits, while an initial aim includes supporting the bigger operators as a sub-contractor, the enlarged Rossair group will seek to expand its own FIFO services in WA and SA.

“We want to build up our own contract base. Our grand vision is to be a prime contractor on our own merits.”

In SA, the group has “a bunch of FIFO contracts” to serve the remote mineral resources industry.

An important new deal involves the previously mothballed Challenger gold mine in the far north-west of the state. Listed mining company WPG Resources took over the lease last year, revived the mine and poured its first gold in February,.

In November, Rossair won an associated contract for WPG’s Tarcoola project, marking the start of mine development in the old Outback gold workings.

The Tarcoola project involves two Beechcraft 1900D return flights a week at present and the WPG work is seen as a “key contract” for the aviation group.

In addition, Rossair provides services for uranium miner Heathgate’s Beverley mine at the northern reaches of the Flinders Ranges near Lake Frome, for mineral sands company Iluka’s operations west of Ceduna, and for Chinese owned CU-River’s copper-gold project near Coober Pedy.

In WA, the company recently lost the contract to serve the Meekatharra gold mine of Doray Minerals, but flies five return services a week from Perth to Saracen Mineral’s gold mine, north of Kalgoorlie, using the Beechcraft 1900Ds.

Puvanendran – after three years with Cobham in the West and a previous background in the mining industry – believes demand for FIFO work is starting to pick up again and the recent upturn in the mineral resources sector has justified the decision to seek a fourth 1900D, which can operate from unsealed strips.

“There’s enough market share out there for us,” he believes.

Hence the start of studies to assess the acquisition of another Brasilia and a small jet, of up to 50 seats.
Allied to that FIFO work is air freight to remote mines and communities, with a payload of up to 1.5 tonnes.

There’s enough market share out there for us. Warren Puvanendran

While the new CEO sees FIFO work as the main game for Rossair, and firmly rejects any thoughts of moving into the RPT sector, he says the group will continue to seek ad hoc charter work, with emphasis on its Rossair Travel unit, which he describes as an aviation “broker” for VIP and corporate clients, not a travel agency. Its client base includes resources companies taking financial analysts and investors to remote mining operations.

Last year, in the campaign to sell the Sidney Kidman cattle empire to Australian and overseas buyers, Rossair flew a group of Chinese investors around the widespread properties.

Organising such itineraries is another niche market, Puvanendran says. It is a comparatively small market, but one offering good returns.

Last September, Rossair’s Adelaide office launched a range of air travel packages, using the Cessna Conquests to take groups of six to eight tourists to such SA destinations as Kangaroo Island, the Flinders Ranges, the Coonawarra wine region, and whale watching in the Great Australian Bight.

Client relations manager Jasmine Gligora says the innovation has sparked interest from around the country and even overseas, including an enquiry from a New York travel agency.

“The response has been excellent,” she says, with several flights operated already, including ones to Kangaroo Island, Port Lincoln and Coonawarra.

Apart from tourists wishing to visit major destinations quickly, the packages have attracted interest from companies wanting to use them as incentives for staff or clients.

In another development, Rossair is working to bring all its maintenance and engineering work in-house. At present most of this work is contracted out, but the company is negotiating with Adelaide Airport Ltd for hangar space near its private flight lounge – possibly the former Royal Flying Doctor Service’s central premises, now vacant following the RFDS’s move to its new aeromedical base at the western end of the airport.

That would enable the company to handle all its own aircraft engineering work.

If the Adelaide Airport hangar quest fails, Rossair will look to Parafield as an alternative for an engineering base.

Either way, “we would like to look after our own aircraft, and be self-sustaining,” Puvanendran says.

While the proposed development of Rossair Engineering would concentrate on the group’s own aircraft, “that’s not to say we wouldn’t look at third party work” later.

As he plots a future course for Rossair, Puvanendran admits finding new pilots to boost the present numbers of “a little under 20” is a problem..
“We are looking for more turbo-prop pilots, but so are others, and it’s a struggle to recruit, and retain.”

To run the three aviation entities, one management team operates the group from Adelaide. Puvanendran commutes between Perth and Adelaide but says he will be relocating to Adelaide as the expanded business develops.