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A French-Canadian startup is seeking government investment to launch airship cargo operations in the Australian outback.
Flying Whales, which signed a deal with Mount Isa Council in 2024 to construct an airship base in the regional Queensland city, is looking to begin operations using its LCA60T helium airships as early as 2029, but wants minority government investment to make the plans a reality.
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“We’re going to transport wind turbines, blades, high voltage towers, containers in remote areas or wherever the infrastructure is congested or difficult,” Flying Whales president Sébastien Bougon told the ABC, saying that the company wants to open at least six bases in the country.
“Mount Isa could be our very first base in Australia and the Asia-Pacific … there are a lot of projects like CopperString [transmission line], and it’s kind of halfway from Brisbane to Darwin.
“We have developed the engineering. What we would like to see from the state and federal governments is to become a shareholder alongside the French government and Canadian government.”
Mount Isa has labelled the Flying Whales base a “priority project”, saying in last year’s Future Ready Economy Roadmap that it will “facilitate the delivery of the Queensland Energy and Jobs Plan and the nation’s Net Zero goals”.
“The [200-metre] airships are designed to transport heavy, bulky items such as wind turbine blades or construction materials [up to 60 tons] to remote locations without requiring ground infrastructure,” the report read.
“This is particularly advantageous for areas where roads or bridges can’t facilitate access (for example the load is too heavy for bridges or too long for corners), or when roads or railways are not transitable (for example during flooding).
“In October 2024 Mount Isa City Council signed a memorandum of understanding with Flying Whales to build its first Australian base in Mount Isa, citing advantages of predictable weather, proximity to remote mines, and the growth of wind projects in the North West.”
The government’s Northern Australian Infrastructure Facility (NAIF), which funds projects in the region, told the ABC the proposal “did not meet essential criteria”.
“NAIF’s investment team had early-stage discussions with Flying Whales in late 2024–early 2025, which did not progress,” a NAIF spokesperson said.
“NAIF has a set of mandatory criteria which projects must satisfy … this includes proponents demonstrating that the loan can be repaid or refinanced.”
The Mount Isa base would be constructed on the site of the former Glencore copper mine.
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