Australian business aviation company Executive Airlines is establishing a new fixed-base operation at Perth airport in Western Australia. Expansion for the Essendon airport, Melbourne-based company comes as the Australian business aviation market is growing.
Executive Airlines is investing A$4 million ($3 million) in its new Perth facility that will comprise an FBO with a passenger terminal and hangar and is due for completion in September. The company is now basing a Cessna Citation Sovereign in the state and will add a second, larger and longer-range aircraft from July, says Phil Clements, the company's Western Australia representative.
Executive Airlines is one of the country's oldest business aviation companies. It was established in the 1980s to provide business jet aircraft management and operations. In the 1990s it purchased Southern Commander, which managed and operated a Raytheon Hawker 800 for Shell Australia, and BHP-Rio Tinto-owned Associated Airlines, which operated a Gulfstream GIV and a Challenger 601 for the resources companies.
Business aviation activities in the state are on the rise. Western Australia supported nine business jets in the 1980s, according to Clements, before concerns of corporate excess resulted in companies getting rid of their aircraft. Today there are two or three corporate aircraft in the state, but there is scope for six or seven, with two or three potential new operators in Perth, Clements believes.
In addition, Executive Airlines has a number of clients with operations in the west of the country so it made sense for it to have a Perth base. The company is also considering establishing bases in New South Wales and Queensland.
Source: Flight International
