QLD minister for Infrastructure Cameron Dick has announced that Alliance Airlines will expand its Queensland operations and establish a new base in Rockhampton, with help from the government’s Advance Queensland Industry Attraction Fund.
He said the project is worth around $12.5m and will bring greater connectivity, potential new routes, increased private charters and new tourism ventures to Central Queensland.
“For the people of Rocky, it also means that during natural disasters like flooding, fires or cyclones there will be improved access to large commercial jet aircraft,” Mr Dick said.
The Managing director of Alliance, Scott McMillan, said the funding announcement by Alliance Airlines is the first step in developing a significant operational base in Rockhampton.
“Since Alliance was founded in 2002, with the assistance of the state government, we have grown to become Australia’s largest charter operator specialising in charters for the resources sector.
“Alliance has grown from a Brisbane head office and maintenance facility with two Fokker 100 aircraft to now having permanent maintenance and offices in Brisbane, Townsville, Cairns, Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne and Darwin and in excess of 40 Fokker aircraft.
In other news, a German airline that specialises in heavy and outsize air cargo transport, has supported the construction of a 32-turbine renewable energy wind farm in Australia. Volga-Dnepr Airlines successfully delivered 80 tonnes of energy equipment from Cologne-Bonn, Germany, on behalf of General Electric.
The size of the iconic Antonov 124-100 cargo hold, 36 x 6.4 x 4.4 metres, allowed the 4-metre long, 36-tonne wind turbine hub and three 12.6 tonne generators to be securely positioned inside the airplane using the freighter’s own loading system and an external crane.
Volga-Dnepr’s in-house professionals were able to efficiently expedite the shipment on the whole route organising road transport to Cologne Bonn Airport in Germany and then to the construction site near Hallett in South Australia after its arrival to Adelaide.
“Our three-decade knowledge and expertise, ability to move the entire load on a single An-124-100 flight and fast road transport solutions in Germany and Australia helped us to halve the typical end-to-end transit time for a delivery like this,” Ekaterina Andreeva, deputy commercial director of Volga-Dnepr Airlines said.
