Thursday, April 28, 2016

General Aviation Maintenance (GAM) Central Queensland / Fraser Coast weekday freight runs

General Aviation Maintenance (GAM) is an Essendon Airport, Victoria based operation comprising of GAMair, General Aviation Maintenance (GAM), DC3 Australia, Commander Air and Reefwatch Air Tours however has a small dedicated fleet of Aero Commander 500-S and a single Fairchild Dornier 228-200 aircraft and crew based at Brisbane Airport to service a wide range of charter and freight contracts in Queensland, particuarly the South-Western, Central and Fraser Coast part of the state.

Some of the more notable freight runs currently awarded to GAM that operate each weekday by Aero Commander 500-S aircraft consist of the following :

* Brisbane - Maryborough - Bundaberg - Gayndah and return via the same stops in reverse.

An aircraft generally departs Brisbane during the earlier hours of the morning and remains parked at Gayndah until late afternoon. 

Worth noting that for the past two consecutive Tuesdays, Fairchild Dornier 228-200 VH-VJD has replaced the usual Aero Commander 500-S on the run. Time will tell if this becomes a more regular occurance or just a temporary measure to cover downtime of other aircraft operated by GAM.  

* Brisbane - Dalby - Roma - Charleville and return via the same towns but includes a stop at Toowoomba.

Again, an Aero Commander makes an early morning departure from Brisbane and remains parked at Charleville until mid-afternoon.

* A more recent freight contract picked up by GAM is the weekday Emerald - Barcaldine - Longreach and return service.

Until recently, Advance Aviation held this contract but when the Emerald based company was placed into administration in March this year, was awarded to GAM.

A FIFO contract once held with QGC to transport workers between Brisbane and Chinchilla was awarded to Skytrans Airlines in September 2015 and commenced a few weeks later in October. On the route, GAM operated Fairchild Dornier 228-200 aircraft and were replaced with the venerable de Havilland Dash 8-100 when Skytrans Airlines assumed the resigns.

To learn more about General Aviation Maintenance, their official website can be found at : http://gamgroup.com.au/
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  




 
 
Photo by Micah S.

 
Photo by Micah S.

 
Photo by Micah S.
 

 
 
 
 
 

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

JetGo Australia Embraer ERJ-135LR VH-JGB

Phil Munsel Photography of Rockhampton recently had the pleasure to take a closer look at JetGo Australia Embraer ERJ-135LR VH-JGB while the aircraft was operating an RPT service from Townsville to Gold Coast via the beef capital and has kindly allowed Air Queensland.blogspot to share the experience, we are sincerely grateful for the opportunity.   
 
In this post, we also take a quick look at the airline's current operations.    
 
After failing to ignite sustainable interest on the Sydney - Gladstone route that only lasted for two months, JetGo Australia bravely returned to Central Queensland a few months later when the airline commenced thrice weekly Townsville - Rockhampton - Gold Coast and return services in September 2015.

Flights from North Queensland to South Queensland via Rockhampton are operated by 36-seat Embraer ERJ-135LR regional jets each Sunday, Monday and Thursday.

Other RPT services currently provided by JetGo Australia include six times per week Brisbane - Dubbo, three times per week Brisbane - Melbourne / Avalon via Dubbo and five times per week Brisbane - Tamworth flights. 

JetGo Australia also provides regular FIFO services from Brisbane and Townsville to Osborne Mine near Mt Isa. An Embraer ERJ-135LR is permanently based at Townsville Airport for this contract and no-doubt has been further utilised upon commencement of the Townsville - Rockhampton - Gold Coast flights.

Established in 2012 to provide ad hoc and contract charter work, particularly Fly-in / Fly-out (FIFO) in support of the mining and resource sector, the airline has steadily moved into offering RPT flights on selected routes, and grown it's fleet to three ERJ-135LR jets in support of this. 

To learn more about JetGo Australia, their official website can be located by clicking onto the following link : http://www.jetgo.com/