Inside Hawker Pacific

D’Arcy’s passion runs through Hawker Pacific, which he’s here to talk to about. On the surface a sales a support company, it is, in fact, one of the largest independent companies of its type in the APAC region, with more than 800 employees and operates as an almost one-stop shop providing aircraft (fixed and rotary wing) sales, MRO, total fleet support, design, FBO, charter and CR&O across both the military and commercial space. Launched in Australia in 1978, the business initially operated mostly in the fixed-wing space, however has grown to support a complete rotary operation that holds Bell independent representative (IR) and customer service facility (CSF) status.

In May 2018, its progress was turbocharged when Jet Aviation acquired it. This 4,000 employee-organisation operated MRO, VIP Completions and FBOs around the world in 50 locations, but with little output in the APAC region. “They saw Hawker Pacific as an ideal fit in that jigsaw puzzle,” explains D’Arcy. “And it’s been a two-and-a-half-year journey of integrating the Hawker Pacific businesses into Jet Aviation.” The combination has allowed Hawker to tap into global experience while also sending insight the other way.

Today, the businesses together offer a huge multi-national network with specialist, local knowledge. They provide a vast FBO and MRO operation, providing maintenance, modification and support services for a broad range of regional, business and general aviation fixed-wing and helicopters, including high capacity RPT aircraft. The company helps corporate, commercial and private customers keep their aircraft operational while meeting all the necessary safety and compliance standards.

“The MRO is mostly on the fixed-wing side, and again, we cover a huge expanse across the industry. For example, if we look at our Cairns facility, we are supporting the regional airline MRO market up there with large turboprop and narrowbody jet heavy maintenance inputs.

“And that’s certainly changed the dynamics of that business out there where it used to do a lot more general aviation. So, it’s matured over the years. In Sydney, we have also consolidated a couple of hangars and now operate out of a single facility that looks after the smaller business jet and turboprop markets. In addition to the standard MRO, we also have a large design and modification capability.”

Another main focus of its offering is in its component services, with a specialist team of spare parts experts providing technical advice and a range of solutions to meet the often diverse needs of the aviation industry. A vast array of support services including spare parts, components, supplies, avionics and specialist equipment, in particular, are maintained by its facilities in Sydney, Cairns, Auckland, Hong Kong and Singapore covering GA, business and regional aviation.

“And we do a lot of military work,” says D’Arcy. “On the side of that is a dedicated machine shop, which does advanced manufacturing in all areas even outside of aviation.”

It is perhaps that broad range of offerings that led Hawker Pacific to set up RBI Hawker, a collaboration between Hawker and Bell that specialises in rotor blade repair. “One of our business units sits in the Middle East where I currently reside. We have been the independent representative for Bell for almost 50 years in various forms of the company,” says D’Arcy.

“Back in 2004, we decided to bring another level of support to customers in the region, and that was rotor blade repair. Here, as you can imagine, shipping rotor blades, five or six metres long around the world is exceptionally costly, so we saw a need for that here. It was a natural fit to partner with Bell while also securing that OEM support and confidence.

“That business has been very successful for the last 15 years, and we’ve made a conscious decision to replicate and expand that into Australia, ongoing as we speak in Brisbane. We’re looking forward to commencing operations before the end of this year.”

Essentially, the business identified something of a gap in the market, explains D’Arcy. “It’s very specialised service and support,” he says. “And it’s a critical flight component, so the OEMs just don’t let it go out to anybody. There’s only a handful of approved facilities throughout the world, and if we were looking at the Middle East, the closest one was the UK and one in Singapore. We always knew there was a need in Australia, so we’re stepping in to fill that need, bringing down Bell approval on all models, as well as approvals on Leonardo 139 and 109 models.”

The collaboration worked, thinks D’Arcy, because the standalone business is backed heavily by the two partners, but also allows there to be a direct connection to the customer at a local industry level. It also understands Australia’s unique requirements, which are very different to the Middle East’s heavy reliance on oil and gas, large helicopters and multi-ship organisations that inevitably have access to spare rotor blades and aircraft.

“That business has been very successful for the last 15 years, and we’ve made a conscious decision to replicate and expand that into Australia, ongoing as we speak in Brisbane. We’re looking forward to commencing operations before the end of this year.”

“The Australian market is more diverse, and it’s spread across everything from training to tourism, parapublic and emergency medical services. Also, we see a very different set up in Australia: there are a lot more private operators and single ship operators, which we will need to be able to support. One difference is we may have to provide loan blades to ensure that customers can keep the aircraft flying while their blades are being repaired,” he says.

D’Arcy himself knows the business inside out, having started as its general manager back in 2004 in Dubai, but his whole career is one of an aviation enthusiast. His journey began when he left school early to join the RAAF where he worked as an instrument fitter, or avionics technician, for nine years. After he left, he spent time in the UK with British Aerospace before heading to Saudi to look after the Tornado for three-and-a-half years. He then returned to Australia to complete CASA licensing and spent time around the country and touring out of Papua New Guinea. He headed to the more cosmopolitan UAE in 1996 and had a stunt with Bombardier before joining Hawker Pacific and launching RBI Hawker in 2004.

“The rest is history,” he says. “It’s gone on from there. So here I am still even though the role has changed multiple times. Now I look after the Hawker Pacific interests in the Middle East, and also our MRO organisation in Australia. It keeps me pretty busy.”

Not, of course, that anything could have prepared him, and Hawker, for the events of 2020. “We were able to keep the business running which was hugely important to us. Everything shut down for a month but we’re luckily seeing the other side of that now,” D’Arcy adds.

What, though, of the future for himself, Hawker Pacific and the industry? “Video calls have become so much the norm that people want a break from them to get away. People want to travel more than ever before. So get me off this video call! Tourism, business travel, how it’s done may change – with more of an emphasis on the private and charter side of things, smaller operations. But aviation is going to come back stronger.”

“The Australian market is more diverse, and it’s spread across everything from training to tourism, parapublic and emergency medical services.”