Towards a New Beginning: A Blueprint for Recovery

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Towards a New BeginningA Blueprint for Recovery

• Michael Bridge
• CEO - Airnorth Regional
• Chairman - RAAA

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Outline

• What Is Regional Aviation?
• RAAA Today
• The Issues Today
• National perspective
• Industry perspective
• The Future
• Blueprint For Recovery

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Who Is Regional Aviation?

• Regional Airlines
• Charter Operations
• Aeromedical Operations
• Aerial Work Operations
• Maintenance Organisations
• Regional Flying Schools
• Regional Airports, and
• The Businesses That Support Them

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The RAAA Today
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The Issues Today - National

• Changing demographics
• Market based policies
• Smaller communities losing services
• Social costs
• Economic costs
• Medical
• Agri-business

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The Issues Today - Industry

• Inadequate return on investment and effort
• Runaway costs
• CASA
• Security
• Fuel
• Airports
• Looming staff shortages esp pilots and LAMEs
• Aging aircraft

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The Future

• Depends both on Government and ourselves
• Need a market
• Need access to
• appropriate airports
• enough adequately trained staff
• appropriate aircraft (and capital)
• Need fair return on investment and effort
• support from market
• appropriate regulatory environment
• appropriate economic conditions

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Blueprint for Recovery

• Recognise things we can not change
• Declining populations in the bush
• Lack of economies of scale
• Lack of replacement low capacity aircraft
• and work on the rest

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Blueprint for Recovery

• Industry
• Work more closely with other segments
• Strength through unity
• Work together more within own segment
• Create economies of scale
• Help fix the LAME problem
• Improve pay and conditions for technical staff
• Employ apprentices
• Improve marketing of industry
• Recruitment
• Attractiveness of air travel
• Reasonableness of fare structure

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Blueprint for Recovery

• Government
• Recognise significance of regional aviation
• Make CASA less intrusive, more efficient, less
  costly
• Review Act and Regulations
• Make CASA more accountable
• Reduce security cost burden on industry
• Control airport pricing and activities
• Facilitate technical training like academic
  training
• Provide tax relief for upgrading (depreciation
  and CGT)
• Develop RASS to encourage expansion of services

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Conclusions

• Regional air services are
• essential to rural and remote communities
• social well-being
• economic well-being
• in decline
• held back by
• small market size/long routes
• runaway costs
• government charges (CASA, security)
• fuel
• airports
• lack of economies of scale
• looming staff shortages
• aging aircraft
• It is time for change

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Conclusions

• Unless things change, the end is in sight for
  many more regional services and regional
  operators
• Industrys challenge
• to work together to develop some economies of
  scale
• to provide better pay and conditions for staff
• to market itself better to the public
• Governments challenge
• to change policies to
• remove unnecessary economic burdens (federal and
  state level)
• remove unnecessary regulatory burdens
• encourage aviation
• extend the incentives for academic training to
  technical training
• We dont want a hand out we seek a fair go

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THANK YOU