Aeropelican Air Services, Newcastle (Williamtown), Australia
The Aeropelican Story
Index
Aerodrome Development
Aeropelican airfield is situated between Swansea and Belmont in New South Wales on a strip of land bounded by the Pacific Highway and Pelican Point on the shoreline of Lake Macquarie. The airfield is approximately 20 kilometres south of Newcastle City and was built and founded by the late Mr Keith Hilder, who embarked upon his dream of developing Pelican to bring it to a standard that could be used by the community wishing to use air as a means of travelling into and out of Newcastle.
In 1957 the late Keith Hilder operated a DH90 aircraft out of Broadmeadow aerodrome, an inner suburb of Newcastle, which was also the home of the Royal Newcastle Aero Club.
In that year the Department of Civil Aviation advised the Aero Club that the field was to be closed and that they would have to move to an alternative site. Several sites were investigated and finally the choice narrowed down to two, Pelican and Rutherford.
The Aero Club decided to go to Rutherford. After succeeding with his application to obtain miners rights over the whole area, Mr Hilder commenced developing Pelican in 1959 for his own private use. After a series of complicated moves, he successfully received a 25-year lease in August, 1959.
The site that he chose comprised of approximately 27 acres between the sea at the Eastern end and Lake Macquarie at the Western end. The land was covered with tea trees, cabbage palms and general scrub.
Because the area was very swampy, a drain was put down on each of the proposed runway sides and into the lake.
One of the side benefits for the local area and in particular the golf course, which is on the eastern side on the Pacific Highway was that, as the area was drained, low-lying areas became useable and the local flooding problem was reduced.
Air Licence Application
The area was cleared of trees and the formation of the airstrip commenced. Many thousands of metres of chitter from the surrounding mines were used to raise the area and provide a solid base. Soil was brought in and the whole area was grassed. Whilst developing the airport grounds Mr Hilder applied for a Flying School and Air Charter Licence and, after years of bureaucratic knockbacks, was finally granted a Charter and Aerial Work Licence by the then Department of Civil Aviation on the 25th July, 1962.
Operations commenced and progressed as a Flying Training and Air Charter established logging many thousands of hours flying each year.
It became obvious to Mr Hilder that the people of Newcastle needed a better air service than the one being offered by a major domestic air carrier at that time, which consisted of one departure and one arrival each day and was operated from RAAF base at Williamtown, north of Newcastle.
It took from 1962 to 1967 to convince the regulatory authorities of the need in Newcastle and other areas in N.S.W. and that General Aviation operations could safely, reliably and efficiently provide an air service. In 1967 a Reg 203 Exemption was granted, to operate a scheduled air service between Pelican and Sydney.
Another four years were to pass before Aeropelican, in its own right, was given the necessary licence to operate its first scheduled flight, which took place on 1st June, 1971, with an 8-passenger Cessna 402 aircraft.
Aircraft Introduction
In early 1975 it was considered by the Company that the 77% load factor was not at all times meeting the demand for seats on the service and a study into bigger aircraft was commenced. In April, 1976 Aeropelican introduced its first DHC-6 Twin Otter Series 100 aircraft to its fleet of Cessna 402's.
Unfortunately the founder of the Company Mr Keith Hilder never really saw the DHC-6 in scheduled operation, as he was admitted to hospital 2 days after the arrival of the aircraft and died on 3rd June, 1976.
The Hilder family continued developing the Flying Training School and the Scheduled Air Service, which operated in the name of Aeropelican Intercity Commuter Air Services Pty. Ltd. It had become obvious that the DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft was ideally suited to the short sector high density flying that was demanded of it and the Company's second Twin Otter was purchased in 1977 and a third in 1978.
In 2004, Aeropelican commenced operating the Newcastle (Williamtown) to Sydney route after other operators exited and/or decreased services on the route. With this expansion leading to a starting operation of 4 return flights per day during the week and 2 return flights on weekends, it was necessary to expand the fleet to cope with increased passenger demand.
After a successful proving with the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, Aeropelican new addition to the fleet, the Embraer Bandeirante commenced operation on the Newcastle to Sydney route on Monday 20 th September 2004. Carrying 15 passengers each flight, this opened up a total of 796 seats on the route every week.
Ownership Changes
During 1980 the Hilder family decided to sell the entire Aeropelican operation to Masling Airlines, which was owned and operated by Mr Jack Masling, who was based at Cootamundra N.S.W.
Three new DHC-6 Twin Otter 320's were purchased and introduced into service in June 1981. A 4th Series 320 later replaced the Series 100.
Unfortunately the Flying Training School was forced to close in 1980, due to environmental and policitcal pressures, as a trade-off situation, to enable the scheduled service to continue operation.
In August 1981, Aeropelicans ownership changed to BODAS Pty Ltd, a company jointly owned by TNT and News Limited. An association with Ansett commenced and the company was later a wholly owned subsidary of Ansett Australia.
In September 2001, Aeropelican was placed into voluntary administration.
In April 2002, Aeropelican was sold by the administrators to International Air Parts Pty Ltd.
Present Aircraft Fleet
The present fleet consists of 1 x Embraer Bandeirante and 1 x Metro 23 SA227
The Embraer Bandeirante has a passenger seating capacity of 15 and the Metro has a seating capacity of 19.
Both aircraft are crewed by 1 Captain and 1 First Officer trained to Airline Transport Pilot Standard.
Qantas Association
Effective 22 April 2002, Aeropelican commenced a commercial association with Qantas. This association allows our passengers to thru check baggage onto Qantas Domestic Services. Aeropelican reservations are also hosted in the Qantas Reservation System.
Regional Express Association (Rex)
Effective 20 June 2003, Aeropelican entered into a commercial agreement with Regional Express Airlines (Rex). This agreement allows our passengers to thru-check baggage onto all Rex services within NSW and vice versa.
Rex operates both Saab 340 and Metro 23 aircraft on routes in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania.
Rex services the capital cities of Adelaide, Canberra, Melbourne, and Sydney and regional centres of Ceduna, Port Lincoln, Coober Pedy, Kangaroo Island, Whyalla, Olympic Dam, Broken Hill, Mt. Gambier, Portland, King Island, Burnie, Devonport, Wagga Wagga, Albury, Merimbula, Dubbo, Bathurst, Griffith, Lismore, Mildura, Moruya, Narrandera, Orange, Parkes, Traralgon and Ballina.
Scheduled Flight Path
The flight path taken by Aeropelican between Sydney and Newcastle (Williamtown) is said by International passengers to be one of the most scenic 45 minute coastal flights in Australia because it is taken slightly seaward of the Eastern coastline.
This enables travellers the opportunity to view the vastness of Sydney 's populated area, golden northern beaches and lakes from an altitude of 5,000 feet.
The 45 minute flight South to Sydney generally takes the traveller slightly inland from the coast across Cooranbong, Wyong and the Hawksbury River before entering again into the Northern suburbs of Sydney , across Sydney Harbour and landing at Mascot.
Regular air travellers between Newcastle and Sydney state that they never tire of the splendid views sighted in both directions.