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Another Brisbane-based airline sheds jobs
Melissa Singer | February 18, 2009 - 12:57PM

Brisbane-based regional airline SkyAirWorld will shed 40 jobs and ground three aircraft as the company confronts the slowdown in the travel industry.

The airline confirmed this morning it had let go staff from its Brisbane base and closed its Cairns base, which serviced the Brisbane-Cairns-Cloncurry route.

The Cairns redundancies follow the airline's decision on February 6 to cease operating the north Queensland route after some of SkyAirWorld's key clients in the mining industry could not guarantee ongoing business.

A statement from SkyAirWorld, which also operates services to the Solomon Islands, said the airline was forced to act now to safeguard the company against the prolonged impact of the global economic crisis.

"With regret, this has lead to redundancies - a step that SkyAirWorld has made every effort to avoid," the statement read.

"This decision has not been made lightly and has been necessitated as a result of the world wide economic downturn and a need for restructuring of our core operations."

The redundancies will affect all departments of the company, a SkyAirWorld spokeswoman said.

She said the company previously had 100 staff and five aircraft.

SkyAirWorld CEO David Charlton said the company would assist staff members affected by the redundancies where possible.

"This action, though regrettable, is necessary to ensure the long-term sustainability of our organisation," he said.

Cairns Chamber of Commerce president Jeremy Blockie said the closure of the Cairns base, which opened in September, was unfortunate.

"To have it so quickly cut back was disappointing," he said.

The SkyAirWorld job losses follow yesterday's news budget airline Virgin Blue would shed 400 jobs and ground five aircraft.

CEO Brett Godfrey said some staff would be redeployed to Virgin's new international arm, V Australia, which launches flights to the US this month.

Mr Godfrey said the grounding of the aircraft may affect Virgin Blue's future ability to offer heavily discounted fares on some routes.

Last month, MacAir, which serviced outback Queensland, went into voluntary administration and receivership before winding up on February 6 with the loss of 180 jobs.

SkyTrans took over services to the Gulf previously operated by MacAir, under one of three emergency contracts awarded by the State Government.

QantasLink and WestWing will commence services to other areas early in March.

Tenders for a long-term contract for the Gulf routes will be finalised later in the year.

SkyAirWorld plans to launch new services from Perth to Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands in April.

With AAP