Pearl Aviation

Pearl Aviation is the most prominent of a group of aviation companies owned by Paspaley Pearling. It is an air charter company based in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. It operates specialist aviation services including air ambulance, mining site flights, offshore oil support and contract charter. Its main base is Darwin International Airport, with other bases at Brisbane International Airport, Alice Springs Airport & Broome International Airport.^[1] Other companies in the Pearl group conduct business jet charter and search and rescue operations, Fixed base operator services, and operations in support of Paspaley's pearling activities, from bases at Darwin Airport, Perth Airport, Mungalalu Truscott Airbase, Cairns International Airport, Essendon Airport and Brisbane Airport.

History

The airline was formed and started operations in 1964 as Skywest Aviation, which acquired East-West Airlines in 1984 and was itself acquired by Ansett Airlines in 1987. The company was divided into airline and non-airline operations and the non-airline operations were purchased in 1996 by Paspaley Pearling (which by that time had been operating aircraft to its pearl farms for over ten years) and renamed.^[2] One of the divisions of East-West that was purchased was an operation at Sydney Airport, conducting air ambulance flights for the Ambulance Service of New South Wales. In 2004 Pearl Aviation was awarded a ten-year contract to operate four Beechcraft Super King Airs configured as air ambulances for the Northern Territory Aerial Medical Service,^[3] after losing a similar Ambulance Service of New South Wales contract to the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia the previous year. Pearl Aviation is wholly owned by the Paspaley Pearls Group and has 120 employees (at March 2007).^[1]

Paspaley's other aviation companies

AeroPearl Super King Air 350, used for checking navaids on behalf of Airservices Australia

Grumman Turbo Mallard at Mungalalu Truscott

AeroRescue Dornier 328

The Paspaley Pearl Dassault Falcon 900C VH-PPD

AeroPearl is a joint venture between Pearl Aviation and Aerodata AG of Germany, based at Brisbane Airport.^[4] It operates under contract to Airservices Australia; it uses two Beechcraft Super King Airs to check the network of Australian civil aviation navaids, and has also performed similar work in various Asian countries.^[5]

AeroRescue conducts Search and Rescue flights on behalf of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), using a fleet of five Dornier 328s and one Beechcraft 200T Super King Air based around Australia (Perth, Darwin, Cairns, Brisbane and Melbourne). AeroRescue was awarded a contract by AMSA to provide aircraft in late 2005, and reached its full complement of aircraft in 2007.^[6][7][8] These aircraft are equipped with video cameras (FLIR), surface radar scanners and radios to support Search and Rescue operations on land and on sea. All different devices are linked into one single operator workstation called AeroMission which was installed by Aerodata AG between 2005 and 2007 at the Braunschweig Airport in Germany.

Lloyd Aviation Jet Charter, also known as Pearl Air International, operates a fleet of Grumman Turbo Mallards to fly Paspaley employees to the company's pearl farms. The Mallards have been a feature of Paspaley's pearling operations since the early 1980s, and were modified in-house to be powered by Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6 turbine engines in place of the original radial engines. Lloyd Aviation also operates a Dassault Falcon 900C business jet on charter flights.^[9][10][11]

Pearl Flight Center is a Fixed Base Operator (FBO), providing ground handling services for corporate and private aircraft as well as the company's aircraft, via two facilities at Darwin Airport and a facility at Perth Airport. It also manages the charter operations of Pearl group aircraft.^[12]

Fleet

As of December 2009 the Paspaley Group fleet consists of:^[8][11][13]

• 4 Fairchild Metro 23 (owned and operated by Pearl Aviation)
• 6 Beechcraft 200 Super King Air (owned by Pearl Aviation; one operated by AeroPearl)
• 3 Beechcraft 200C Super King Air (owned and operated by Pearl Aviation))
• 1 Beechcraft B200 Super King Air (owned and operated by Pearl Aviation)
• 1 Beechcraft B300 Super King Air 350 (owned by Airservices Australia, operated by AeroPearl)
• 1 Cessna 208 Caravan (owned and operated by Paspaley Pearls)
• 5 Dornier 328-100 (leased, operated by Aero Rescue)
• 1 Dassault Falcon 900C (owned by Paspaley Pearls, operated by Lloyd Aviation)
• 3 Grumman G-73AT Turbo Mallard (owned and operated by Paspaley Pearls)
• 2 Beechcraft B300 Super King Air 350i

External links

• Pearl Aviation
• Aerodata AG
• AeroPearl
• AeroRescue
• Pearl Flight Centre
• Paspaley Pearls

References

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