Australia’s FlyPelican consolidates Newcastle base
FlyPelican (FP, Newcastle Williamtown) is consolidating its operations at its base at Newcastle Williamtown on the east coast of Australia, with a new on-site head-office and maintenance hangar.
The new 1,230 square meter facility includes a hangar housing three aircraft and offices for 50 people, the airport announced in a statement. This will bring FlyPelican’s maintenance facility and base of operations together under one roof.
The regional airline – which has been based at Newcastle Airport since 2015 – will employ up to 15 people. It is assembling a team of local maintenance engineers who will conduct the base maintenance of its fleet of 19-seater Jetstream 32s at the airport.
This also follows a recently announced enhanced commercial partnership with Virgin Australia (VA, Brisbane Int’l), giving FlyPelican passengers access to the carrier’s frequent flyer benefits and airport lounge access.
FlyPelican Chief Executive Officer Marty Hawley said the airline aimed to increase its frequencies on its current route network whilst looking at future route opportunities out of Newcastle.
Its new consolidated operations base will further enhance its ability to connect to key intrastate destinations across New South Wales (NSW) and interstate to Canberra and the Sunshine Coast, agreed Newcastle Airport Chief Executive Officer Peter Cock.
Newcastle Airport is home to the majority of FlyPelican’s fleet, with flights direct from there to Dubbo, Ballina, Sydney Kingsford Smith, Canberra, and Sunshine Coast. It also operates between Canberra and Port Macquarie; and from Sydney to Mudgee, Taree, and Cobar. It also carries out air charter services across Australia.
FlyPelican currently holds about 6% market share at Newcastle in terms of weekly airline seat capacity. The strongest carrier at the airport is Jetstar Airways (JQ, Melbourne Tullamarine) with almost 46% market share, followed by Virgin Australia (VA, Brisbane Int’l) with 29%, and Qantas (QF, Sydney Kingsford Smith) with almost 17%, ch-aviation capacities data shows.