Macair In Voluntary Administration

[Dave Parer]

Never thought about Rex. They have Saab's like Maciar so that might work. Will certainly be interesting developments over the next few days.

Also going to be interesting to see what happens to the Townsville based ATR-500 that Macair have.

Yes Mick, maybe QF do need to move NOW instead of their planned start up date of 1st March for the TSV-ISA-TSV flights. These flights are to be operated by the Q400's.

[Adam G]

I think many of you have missed the reason why MacAir has financial difficulities - the routes they are operating on are very marginal even with the government support and the mining industry is also struggling. If they can't make it work on a Saab then Alliance won't be able to on a F50/100 or Rex on a SF3 or QFLin on a Q400 - the routes are just too marginal.

I understand that Skytrans is operating a few of the charter/mining routes today. I'd say that you're more likely to see Skytrans pick up a bit, QantasLink pick up a bit (mainly the ISA work), Alliance or Skyairworld may pick up bits of the mining work however some regional communities will no doubt be left high & dry unless the government/community support for some of those routes makes it viable in such large aircraft.

[Clarry S]

You will find that MacAir was actually poorly managed and this is simply a systemic failure of an airline with profitable routes/guaranteed income from mining charters. For this reason another carrier will pick up the pieces at a bargain price.

Lets hope the staff find new jobs within the industry soon enough.

[Mick F]

Adam,
Most routes Macair operated on were more often than not close to full. I don't see how someone couldn't make money on those routes with a SAAB.

Not only that, but they also charged like a wounded bull, and most of their work was government work. So mismanagement seems to be the issue here.

Mick

[phil.l]

Anyone know where their SAAB`S AND ATR are parked?

[Damian N]

I saw one of their SAABs was parked with the freighters at Brisbane yesterday arvo.

[phil.l]

Thanks Damian any idea which one?

[Dave Parer]

Hi Phil,

I was out at Townsville Airport yesterday and saw four Macair Saab's parked in a row over at the GA section next to the large hangers that have recently been erected.

There was also a Saab inside one of the hangers, and I believe VH-UYF might have been the Saab in Brisbane as I logged UYF on my SBS yesterday so it seems it ferried from BNE to TSV and that all Saab's are now here in Townsville.

I never saw the ATR and I really did look hard while I was flying around, but the other three large maintenance hangers had their doors closed so VH-UYJ might have been in one of those hangers but I can't confirm.

I will be out at the airport again this week so I will investigate more.

Cheers,

Dave.

[Mick F]

UYJ not still parked at Cloncurry is it? Broken? Like most of their aircraft seemed to be.

We've been told that one of the taxiways we use in Townsville to taxi to our hangar, has been closed due to Macair aircraft parked on it.

Mick

[phil.l]

Thanks very much Dave well done,love your ADS-B logs to keep them up.