Flight West Airlines
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| Founded | May 1987 | ||||||
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| Fleet size | 16 | ||||||
| Destinations | 34 | ||||||
| Company slogan | jetting into a new territory | ||||||
| Headquarters | Brisbane, Queensland, Australia | ||||||
| Key people | Sir Dennis Buchanan MBE | ||||||
| Website | Archived Home Page | ||||||
Flight West Airlines was an Australian regional airline headquartered in Brisbane, Queensland. Established in May 1987, it operated predominantly in Queensland. The airline went into voluntary liquidation on 19 June 2001 before being sold to Queensland Aviation Holdings, the parent company of Alliance Airlines, in April 2002.
Flight West Airlines was established by Sir Dennis Buchanan in 1987 to operate subsidised passenger services to remote communities on Queensland Government contracts.
Initially the airline used Beechcraft Super King Air aircraft on these services from a base in Brisbane, and then quickly expanded, adding DHC-6 Twin Otters and an EMB 110 to the fleet. A second base was established in Cairns. It was soon operating the most extensive network of routes throughout regional Queensland.
From bases in Brisbane, Townsville and Cairns it served major cities and small regional communities throughout the state including communities on Cape York Peninsula and in the Torres Strait, major coastal cities and islands, and cities and towns in western Queensland.
The airline was affiliated with (but independent of) Ansett Australia airlines which ceased operations on 14 September 2001. Before entering liquidation in June 2001, Flight West serviced 34 destinations and employed over 420 staff.
In the mid 1990s the fleet was composed of Beechcraft King Airs, DHC-6 Twin Otters, de Havilland Canada Dash 8s; and Embraer EMB 110s and EMB 120s. By the late 1990s the airline had disposed of the Twin Otters and EMB 110s. It acquired Jetstream J32s and jet aircraft in the form of three ex-Ansett Fokker F28s followed shortly after by two newer Fokker 100s.
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