History of West Wing Aviation
West Wing Aviation owned 100% by Peter Collings, originated from McKinlay Air Charter Pty Ltd which later became known by the name of Macair Airlines in 1995. Macair is a privately owned regional airline based in Townsville, North Queensland with 18 aircraft ranging from 4 seat single engine aircraft to 34 seat twin turbine aircraft.
This business was established in 1963 and was acquired by Peter Collings in 1992. The Collings family has lived in North West Queensland for over 3 generations and were originally graziers by profession and still operate the family 42,000 acre cattle station located in the Mount Isa region.
In 2000 Peter split the company into two. The existing company Macair Airlines which was rapidly expanding into medium capacity RPT and Charter and West Wing Aviation which took over the smaller size fleet based in Mount Isa to cater for the customers smaller commute requirements which has its own unique operating requirements compared to the larger aircraft.
Macair Airlines was then sold by Peter in 2002 to Transjet Corporation based in Brisbane.
Early 2000 after winning a tender with the Department of Transport and Australia Post to provide Regular Public Transport (RPT) and Mail services to remote North and West Queensland West Wing Aviation successfully applied to The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) to upgrade their Air Operators Certificate (AOC) to RPT. These services which are subsidized by the Department of Transport and contributed to by Australia Post are known as the Regional Airline Subsidized Services or RASS runs for short.
In June 2003 West Wing Aviation acquired Air Mount Isa who were operating out of Mount Isa in the same market. This grew the business to 11 aircraft up to 10 seats. This also included a large terminal building and the control Tower used by West Wing Aviation for its Administration, Crew Training and passenger facilities.
November 2004 Peter acquired Helicopter and Aircraft Maintenance who were maintaining most of the fleet. This was to insure an ongoing maintenance facility in the area was available for West Wing Aviation's aircraft. After extensive structural and operational changes were completed Helicopter and Aircraft Maintenance was renamed Qwest Aviation.
December 2004 West Wing Aviation re-won the QLD RASS RPT routes and also successfully tendered for the South Australian RASS service which is also known as the Worlds Longest Mail run flying from the Southern Coastline of Australia right up to Queensland and return.
2004 also saw the expansion into Townsville with aircraft based there for BHP Cannington crew changes Queensland Health clinic runs and RFDS clinic runs as well as general adhoc charter work.
2006 saw the introduction of West Wing Aviation's first turbine aircraft the Super Kingair Beech200. This aircraft was purchased to cover the expanding mine commute requirements throughout the west. It offers our clients fast services in pressurized Air-Conditioned comfort above most weather.
West Wing is committed to providing it's clients with the highest level of customer service and safety.