BRINDABELLA Airlines grounds four aircraft

[Greg Hyde]

As of last friday BRINDABELLA Airlines has voluntarily grounded four aircraft.

The problem seems to resolve around maintenance paperwork.

Anyone know the full story ?

[Brandon Giacomin]

I don't know anymore info but here are a couple of articles.

http://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/brindabella-airlines-grounds-planes-for-maintenance-review/story-fnii5s3x-1226761687167

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/brindabella-airlines-fixes-half-its-fleet-20131117-2xpci.html

Looks like its the four Jetstream J-41s which have been grounded. I was meant to fly on one yesterday from SYD-NTL but the flight was cancelled. I got a full refund and caught the train up instead. I was offered the 3pm service but I wouldn't have made my midday VA flight from NTL-BNE.

[Nigel C]

This might help...
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/brindabella-airlines-grounds-planes-for-maintenance-review/story-fni0cx12-1226761687167


REGIONAL airline service Brindabella has taken four planes out of service while it undertakes a "maintenance review".

The planes were voluntarily removed from service on Friday night. It's understood the Civil Aviation and Safety Authority was made aware of the decision by the airline.

Qantas, which in July signed a codeshare agreement with the airline, has suspended the arrangement until the issue is resolved. Founded in 1994, the popular country airline conducts over 280 flights per week to Brisbane, Canberra, Cobar, Cooma, Coffs Harbour, Moree, Mudgee, Narrabri, Newcastle, Orange, Sydney and Tamworth.

Four of the airline's 10-strong fleet were taken out of service. An industry source said three of the four planes were in service at the time of the decision.

"The airline is undertaking a maintenance review," the industry source said. "The planes should be back in service by Tuesday or Wednesday."

Brindabella officials were unavailable for comment.

A Qantas spokesman said the airline would service two of the affected routes between Brisbane and Tamworth and Sydney and Moree. "We will be putting on a dozen planes on affected routes," he said.

[Greg Hyde]

AA Yesterday.

http://australianaviation.com.au/2013/11/brindabella-airlines-begins-returning-grounded-j41s-to-service/


Brindabella Airlines has begun returning its four Jetstream 41 aircraft into service after they were grounded on Friday for overdue engine maintenance checks.
“Brindabella Airlines maintenance review of Jetstream aircraft sees one aircraft back to service. Three to go,” CASA announced via its Twitter account on Thursday morning.
The Canberra-based regional airline, which merged with Newcastle-based Aeropelican Air Services earlier this year and recently entered into a codesharing agreement with Qantas on five of its routes, has seen widespread disruptions across its network in the past week thanks to the groundings. Qantas has stepped in to operate a limited number of services between Brisbane and Tamworth and Sydney to Moree.
“We have a program of audits, surveillance and spot checks…[and] this was a routine review of one aspect of Brindabella’s operations, and it was uncovered that these inspections were overdue,” CASA spokesman Peter Gibson earlier told Narrabri’s The Courier newspaper.
On November 19 issued a brief statement on its website concerning the groundings: “Brindabella Airlines have been working hard during the past several days to perform a maintenance review on some of the aircraft in its fleet. This work has unfortunately resulted in some disruption within our network. Brindabella Airlines is currently operating services to all ports on its network, however with modified schedules and frequency. Brindabella look forward to restoring full scheduled services very shortly and apologise to any of its loyal customers who may have been affected.”
One of the four J41s was already undergoing maintenance when the type was grounded.
Brindabella’s 10 aircraft fleet also includes Jetsream 31s and Metros. The airline normally operates nearly 300 flights a week to Brisbane, Canberra, Cobar, Cooma, Coffs Harbour, Moree, Mudgee, Narrabri, Newcastle, Orange, Sydney and Tamworth. Brindabella was established in 1994 and was acquired by current owner Business Air Holdings, which already owned Aeropelican, in 2011.

[Zac M]

Does anyone know what is going on with FQ, still cancelling a lot of flights, 5xMetroliner, 3xJ32 and 2xJ41 are out of service mostly parked up at CBR with not a lot happening!

[Greg Hyde]

http://australianaviation.com.au/2013/12/brindabella-aims-to-restore-schedule-integrity/

Brindabella Airlines is making a number of changes to its schedules which it says will restore “integrity” to its operations after an ongoing period of flight disruptions and delays that culminated in its Jetstream 41 fleet being temporarily grounded and the suspension of Sydney-Orange flights.
“Brindabella Airlines has been working hard during the past fortnight to restore integrity to its scheduled regular passenger transport services,” the airline said in a statement on its website on Wednesday. “As part of an internal review, services on the airlines Sydney to Orange route have been temporarily suspended to allow equipment to be used and support performance on the airlines NSW regulated routes. In addition, Brindabella will be presenting a revised schedule of services to Councils on Thursday 5th December 2013, that is formulated to bring about immediate schedule integrity to the airlines network.”
Concluded the statement: “Transport NSW have been in regular dialogue with Brindabella, and the airline is regularly providing operational updates to the department as to its performance on its regulated routes. Regular two way communication is continuing to ensure both parties are properly updated.”
Brindabella Airlines, which merged with Aeropelican earlier this year, is based in Canberra but operates an extensive network across regional NSW out of Sydney and Brisbane. It operates a fleet of 10 aircraft comprising Jetstream 41s, Jetstream 31s and Metros.

Zac, from the Dec AA it seemed to infer that the Metros had been withdrawn & parked in Canber

[David Knudsen]

From: http://www.casa.gov.au/scripts/nc.dll?WCMS:STANDARD::pc=PC_101864


Brindabella Airlines maintenance reviews
The Civil Aviation Safety Authority has directed NSW regional air carrier Brindabella Airlines to conduct maintenance reviews on another six of its aircraft.

These aircraft may not be flown until the maintenance reviews are completed and CASA has given approval for their return to service.
In November 2013 CASA directed Brindabella to conduct maintenance reviews on four Jetstream aircraft. Two of these aircraft are now approved for service.

The latest direction, which takes effect from on Saturday 14 December 2013, ensures that any outstanding maintenance related issues have been addressed on all Brindabella aircraft.

CASA initially required the reviews on the four Jetstream aircraft after finding Brindabella had overrun engine inspections.

Since then CASA has identified additional inspection and maintenance overruns, leading to the decision to require the six Jetstream and Metroliner additional aircraft to be reviewed.
Brindabella Airlines services a number of regional centres in NSW including Moree, Narrabri, Tamworth and Newcastle.

[Daniel M]

Word on another forum is that Brindabella will be shutting up shop very shortly, announcement pending in the next few days

[JamesL]

There is no information available as to the fate of customers and suppliers owed money after Brindabella Airlines announced its ‘temporary’ closure this afternoon.

CASA had earlier grounded most of its fleet of 10 turbo props comprising Jetstreams and Metroliners over its failure to perform scheduled maintenance on some of the aircraft and doubts concerning the maintenance status of others.

This announcement appears under NEWS on its website.

Brindabella Airlines – Temporary suspension of services

Brindabella Airlines regret to advise that it will temporarily suspend operations with immediate effect. In the interim Brindabella Airlines will not accept any further reservations and all services have been cancelled until further notice.

Brindabella Airlines sincerely regret the concern and inconvenience this action will cause to its customers.

Further updates will be provided on the news section of this website on Sunday 15th December 2013 at 4pm

CANBERRA 1300HRS SATURDAY 14 DECEMBER 2013

The airline’s senior management is reported elsewhere as having left the country. However there is no verification of that report.

What can be verified is that essential NSW rural air services have been closed down, and that no bookings for future dates are enabled on the website.


http://blogs.crikey.com.au/planetalking/2013/12/14/brindabella-airlines-temporarily-shuts-down/

[Rowan McKeever]

Have QLink, Rex or Virgin announced / indicated that they'll cover Brindabella's routes?

[damien b]

More employee's hit by possible unemployment at the wrong time of the year (not that there is a good time). Hope it all gets sorted.

[JamesL]

QLink relief on its way.

http://blogs.crikey.com.au/planetalking/2013/12/14/qantas-offering-discounts-to-brindabella-customers/

[Mark Grima]

Officially in receivership.

KordaMentha to discuss the future of staff at a meeting tomorrow morning.

As a Canberran with family in the Hunter will miss the Newcastle flights.

Hope for the staff something can be sorted.

Cheers

M

[Jonathan W]

And here's a press release from KordaMentha who also handled the receivership of Ansett and Air Australia.
http://www.kordamentha.com/docs/default-source/news/brindabella-media-release---kordamentha.pdf?Status=Temp&sfvrsn=2

[Jacob L]

If they can't get it back going, It will be such a disapontment for Canberra Aviation.

Will be disaponting to see it go if it does.

Couldn't be a worse time for all employees at the company, my thoughts are with them.

Another one bites the dust:(

[Chris W]

Rex is hoping to take on the vast majority of the government routes.

Rex General Manager for Network Strategy and Sales, Warrick Lodge, said that Rex had completed its network review for NSW and would be in a position to begin regular passenger transport services, subject to regulatory approval, to Moree by 3 February 2014 (coinciding with the start of the new slots allocation period). In addition, Rex's subsidiary Air Link would be able to operate some services to Cobar on 6 January 2014, expanding to a full twice-daily service by 10 February 2014. On this same date, Rex would also be able to provide a dedicated daily service for Mudgee with possibly a second daily return via Dubbo.
Mr Lodge added, "Rex intends to draw upon its extensive NSW network and regional slot pool for access into Sydney airport to provide Moree with a prime time early morning departure to Sydney with an evening return to provide for a full day’s business in Sydney.”

Link (http://www.rex.com.au/MediaRelease/Files/408_MR20131220-RexwillapplyforBrindabellasRevokedLicensedRoutes.p df)