Case Studies
Issue No. 27 - February/March
Fast Movers SA 2005
Frequent flyers go south
Established in 1993, Air South operates the largest air charter fleet in South Australia with about 50% of the total charter business volume.
Under managing director Michael Kohn, the firm now has nine employees and a turnover approaching $4 million per annum.
Having achieved all of initial goals, Michael is considering his next move.
“I’ve been asked that a number of times, and I can’t answer at the moment,” Michael says. A veteran pilot who has always operated in civil aviation, he founded Air South as a “one-man band”.
“This is a service industry, and you can’t grow any faster than the people (businesses) you serve.
“As part of the Fast Movers SA 2005 we have been growing at about 30% per year and I think we can do that for another couple of years at least.”
Air South’s main charter customers are medium to large companies looking to transport cargo or staff to regional or outback destinations around Australia.
Expanding mining and seafood industries in South Australia are providing lucrative growth opportunities for the firm.
Air South flies about 40 workers per week to and from the Olympic Dam mine site. And during lobster season from November, the company is busy flying produce from Port Lincoln to Adelaide Airport, where the lobsters are then exported to Asia and other regions by international airlines.
Comparing its charter services to larger commercial carriers, Air South stacks up several advantages. Charter aircraft are more flexible than commercial jets, using congested major airports. They are more flexible in the services — food, bookings, check-in timing — than larger carriers. If aspects like more direct point-to-point travel are valuable to the passenger, charter can be more cost efficient than commercial air.
Air South’s airfreight service is busy, but the carrier charges as little as 53 cents per kilo over a 240km sector for freight, which ca...
