Skyairworld

[Adam G]

Brisbane Times Article

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

[Jarden S]

Does anyone know when the last service from Cairns to Cloncury will operate?

[Steve Jones]

Another message board has quoted an email from the CEO stating that all flying operations have ceased effective immediately (though apparently only temporarily, pending restructure).

[phil.l]

Their two ERJ145 sit at Cairns, are they stored?

[Andrew McLaughlin]

Originally Posted by Steve Jones

Another message board has quoted an email from the CEO stating that all flying operations have ceased effective immediately (though apparently only temporarily, pending restructure).

Which message board Steve?

[Nigel C]

Originally Posted by Andrew McLaughlin

Which message board Steve?

What? There's another message board?!?!

[Steve Jones]

It was on pprune (Am I allowed to use that word?! , but the thread has since been taken down. The post contained the full text of an email dated yesterday (Sat) from David Charlton (CEO) to all staff.

Naturally I can't vouch for accuracy of a post by someone else on another board (and it is a rumour board!), but it did look pretty authentic.

[Steve Bottom]

Their two ERJ145 sit at Cairns, are they stored?

Both ERJ145s sit out the front of Hawker Pacific hanger, not stored as such, just looks the best place to park them out of the way...

[Radi K]

UTY F100 did the HIR and NOU runs today for them

[Steve Jones]

Shameless cooy and paste from the 'other' message board, quoting news from Aviation Australia:

* SKYAIRWORLD ‘PAUSES’ TO RESTRUCTURE: Brisbane based charter and RPT airline SkyAirWorld announced on February 22 its decision to temporarily “pause all flying operations in the short term” as it bids to restructure its organisation.

“We remain committed to our customers, our staff and our suppliers and will work with all parties in the coming weeks as part of our restructuring process,” SkyAirWorld CEO David Charlton said in a statement.

“This prudent decision was made with careful consideration. SkyAirWorld deeply regrets the impact this decision will have on our customers and staff”.

This latest announcement came after the airline had already laid off 40 staff and suspended its ERJ-145 operations on February 16. SkyAirWorld had started Brisbane-Cloncurry-Cairns services last October with the two former LOT Polish Airlines ERJ-145s, and said the service had become unviable. The aircraft are currently parked at Cairns.

SkyAirWorld says it is still committed to the launch of services to Christmas Island and Cocos (Keeling) Islands with E-190s from April 3 2009.