Jet maintenance flying high in pandemic

COVID may have crippled most airlines but other segments of the aviation industry have found a silver lining in the pandemic.

Simon Llewellyn, CEO of Adagold Aviation, which has clocked up an extraordinary milestone during COVID – its 500th flight to the Middle East for the Australian Defence Force. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

A silver lining has appeared in the COVID crisis crippling the aviation industry, with local business jet owners opting to have heavy maintenance done in Australia rather than Europe.

With almost 200 business jets registered in Australia, the development has been welcomed by ExecuJet MRO Services, which has facilities in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane.

Australasia vice-president Grant Ingall said with little flying going on, owners had recognised it was a good time to get their prized aircraft stripped down and overhauled.

“In general these kind of checks have been going offshore. The owners will get them done when they’re travelling through the US or Europe,” Mr Ingall said.

“We’ve just completed the first 120-month (8c) check on a Bombardier Global Express in Sydney and we’ve got another one going in Melbourne, so it’s very positive for us.

“A lot of our customers recognise that it’s a good thing to keep the business in Australia and keep that experience level up, so it’s a good collaborative effort.”

ExecuJet MRO Services was the authorised service centre for a number of manufacturers, including Bombardier, Dassault, Embraer and Gulfstream, and did see some work coming their way from Asia.

Mr Ingall said in that sense, they were “very different to the airline industry”.

“A lot of people are surprised that aircraft are coming in from Asia when all you hear in the media is airlines sending more and more work offshore,” he said.

Post-COVID, he expects the workload will continue to rise as private jets become more popular.

“When flying picks up again the signs are that even more people will be interested in this kind of transport — it’s a more controlled environment, it’s secure, you know who you’re travelling with and you can schedule it as you please,” said Mr Ingall.

“It will be interesting to see how it goes but my thought is it will bounce back reasonably quickly, unlike airlines.”

The rise of the private or charter flight has been well documented over the past five months, and was reflected in the workload of Adagold Aviation.

The charter operator recently notched its 500th flight for the Australian Defence Force, working to bring troops home from the Middle East.

Despite the challenges of the pandemic, Adagold chief executive Simon Llewellyn said they had not missed a flight using four-engine A340s leased from Portuguese operator Hi Fly.

“Obviously, we had to move very quickly once the world changed,” Mr Llewellyn said.

“We’ve had to work closely with the relevant health authorities across multiple jurisdictions and states to make sure we’ve got in place some solid protocols for the management of COVID. That’s certainly created some challenges around how we manage the crew, particularly, and how we ensure the safety of passengers on board.”

Notably, Adagold had not had a single case of COVID-19 among the crew, which Mr Llewellyn attributed to their strict adherence to a “robust COVID management plan”.

“There’s a number of measures we put in place. We have multiple crew sets and we section off parts of the aircraft,” he said.