‘He has jet fuel in his veins’

Little did Steve Padgett know that a boyhood love for aeroplanes would one day see him build his own aviation empire.

Steve Padgett. Picture: Supplied

As a boy, Steve Padgett ran a lucrative backyard carpark for Canterbury racegoers in Sydney to help fund his favourite hobby of building model aircraft.

With a steady hand and a meticulous manner, young Padgett would carefully glue each little piece together and paint the final product to exactly match the illustration on the box.

Little did he know that eye for detail and fascination for aeroplanes, would one day see him build his own aviation empire.

After getting his wings with the Royal Australian Air Force, Padgett went on to a wide range of roles in the aviation industry from private jet pilot to running flight training schools.

Most notably perhaps, Padgett and business partner Scott McMillan landed the deal of a century in 2002, when they bought six Fokker aircraft from a US retirement fund for the bargain price of $18 million — and Alliance Airlines was born.

“The more surprising thing was we talked them into financing the deal because we didn’t have any money,” Padgett recalls.

“It was completely surreal. Without exaggerating when we drove out of there, we did wonder if that did actually happen.”

Happen it did, and today Alliance Airlines has a 44-strong all Fokker fleet not to mention a thriving spare parts business, and is so successful Qantas wants to take them over.

In addition to his role as chairman of Alliance, Padgett runs a number of aviation businesses on the Sunshine Coast, is a life member of the Regional Aviation Association of Australia, an Australian Air Force Cadets councillor and chairman of the Australian Aviation Hall of Fame.

It’s this lifelong devotion to aviation, that has earned him an Order of Australia medal on the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.

Longtime friend McMillan, Alliance Airlines’ managing director, says Padgett puts as much or more back into aviation as he gets out of it.

“He doesn’t have blood in his veins, he has jet fuel and there’s not much he doesn’t know about aviation,” says McMillan.

“About the only thing he loves as much are motor vehicles. He keeps buying the same colour so people don’t know how many he’s got.”

Padgett even met his wife of 51-years, Lorraine, at a flying school and he is clearly chuffed his son Darren followed him into aviation, becoming a Qantas pilot.

Two of his grandchildren are also now learning to fly.

“What I’ve achieved has only been because of the great people who’ve been around me, and that’s made this all worthwhile,” he says.