There's a good reason Perth Airport seems overrun with people in hi vis - even as the resources sector stalls and new projects are shelved - with flights to key industry destinations still dominating air traffic.
There's a good reason Perth Airport seems overrun with people in hi vis – even as the resources sector stalls and new projects are shelved – with flights to key industry destinations still dominating air traffic.
More than half of the intrastate flights that leave Perth Airport are specifically for fly-in, fly-out workers travelling to Western Australia’s oil and gas sites.
FIFO accounts for about 56 per cent of intrastate flights, or 312 of a total 554 intrastate departures. In addition, about 200 general aviation flights leave Perth each week, many with FIFO-related passengers.
In the commercial sector where some long-term official federal government data are available, passenger numbers have been relatively resilient despite the recent gloom around the sector. The data to August show the number of Perth passengers heading to key Pilbara centres Port Hedland and Karratha was about 15 per cent below 2011-12 peaks. Newman’s August traffic was double 2008-09 levels, although it is down around one-third from a peak in 2012-13.
Cobham Aviation Regional Services vice-president Ryan Both characterised the market as stable.
He said Cobham, with 400 staff in WA, was having a strong year largely because of its strategy to offer value to resources companies through initiatives such as custom aircraft.
Mr Both said Cobham expected to introduce more aircraft in line with customer expectations. These included the RJ85 jet, which can take-off and land on gravel runways, and the Embraer 190 which was a more fuel-efficient, faster and bigger option for Chevron’s Barrow Island operations.
“From our point of view the story’s pretty positive,” Mr Both told Business News.
Market analyst Kimber Capital portfolio manager, Kim Slater, told Business News an increase in automation at mine sites would lead to fewer FIFO workers flying.
“Longer term (consolidation) is quite a likely scenario, there will be some rationalisation,” Mr Slater said.
“There’s certainly going to be some consolidation or some strategic partnerships, what shape or form that takes I’m not quite sure, but it seems that would be the natural outcome of what’s got to occur with there being ultimately fewer fly-in, fly-out people.”
He said a current union push to shorten FIFO rosters – if achieved – would result in more flights, which was good for airlines.
However, they would have to drop their prices to secure longer-term contracts while commodity prices remained low.
“What you’re going to see is a bit of horse trading around price per seat for time of contract; it’s more valuable to have the longer-term revenue,” Mr Slater said.
Meanwhile, Virgin and Qantas have been pursuing growth strategies.
Qantas, through its QantasLink, Network Aviation and Qantas brand is understood to have re-signed some of its major resources customers with additional two-year contracts.
It has even brought in Jetstar A320 aircraft for some of its Fortescue Metals Group flights.
A Virgin spokesperson told Business News that, through its Skywest subsidiary and main brand Virgin Australia, it had the largest presence in WA and continued to seek growth by expanding current contracts and adding new clients.
