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The new owner of Cairns-based regional airline Skytrans is looking to bring up to 20 Airbus A320-family planes to Australia within three to five years for wet-leasing operations.
Avia Solutions Group (ASG), which purchased Skytrans in March, intends to fly mainly A319 jets under a wet lease using Skytrans’ AOC with room for A320s and A321s depending on demand, alongside maintaining the existing regional turboprop network for regular passenger transport.
Speaking exclusively to Australian Aviation, Gytis Gumuliauskas, the new managing director of Skytrans who will be in charge of the ACMI (aircraft, crew, maintenance, and insurance) expansion, said the new planes will start arriving in Australia by the end of the year.
“That’s the plan: first aircraft to be arriving in October, three units by the end of 2024, and adding five to seven units during 2025, then varying in the following years to grow by three to five units each year,” he said.
“That’s organic growth, how we’re building a business case. A lot depends on customer needs – if there is a bigger demand, we can bring them in quicker; if it’s less, we will continue to grow as I just explained.
“We are talking with potential customers in the market if we would look into turboprop ACMI as well, but it would be a side business potentially to add on top of jet ACMI operations.”
Gumuliauskas said that the A320 family is a good product for ASG and Skytrans in Australia.
“The main vehicle and initial aircraft will be A319s, we have a plan for those, but depending on the market needs, A320s also can be brought if there will be a job for them. A321s are also something to consider because there are certain potential routes the existing carriers are flying.”
Major carriers in Australia are on the list of potential wet-leasing customers, said Gumuliauskas, alongside airlines in neighbouring countries such as New Zealand.
“We’re here to supply the capacity for airlines to work around, for example, delayed aircraft deliveries, maintenance works, shortages, crew, peak seasons, and so on – or development of existing operations, selling a few more tickets,” he said.
“All the regular carriers, operating in Australia and surrounding markets, neighboring countries, are our potential customers.”
Skytrans has said it will continue regional turboprop operations for the foreseeable future, with CEO Alan Milne telling Australian Aviation in January that it will be “business as usual” for the airline’s current network and schedule.
“ASG is the world’s largest ACMI company, and will provide Skytrans the opportunity for expansion of our operations, fleet and geographic reach while strengthening our position in the Australian market,” he said.
ASG currently operates a global fleet of 212 aircraft.
