Peter Lindsay (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last week I visited Hawker Pacific Aviation at Townsville Airport and I was absolutely astounded at what I saw. Thanks to Brian Huddy, who is the MRO manager at Hawker Pacific, I was able to see and understand the extraordinary capability that exists in Townsville in relation to the maintenance, repair and overhaul of Australian aircraft.

Hawker Pacific is a regional company providing aircraft equipment design and aviation support services for the civil defence and special mission aerospace markets. It is a company that is widely regarded as one of the region’s foremost aviation product support organisations. I was impressed in Townsville that safety and quality assurance are paramount in the company’s vision. Their levels of certification and accreditation, combined with their unique in-house design, engineering and avionics capability, set them apart from most other companies operating in this field.

Hawker Pacific are located in the aviation industrial park at Townsville Airport. Their hangar is one of the largest and most modern of the Hawker Pacific MRO facilities. The facility is ideally located, I believe, to service the maintenance needs of airlines operating on the east coast of Australia, South-East Asia and the Pacific region. I am pleased to say that the company has the confidence to actively pursue opportunities in large aircraft maintenance now and they have invested in excess of $800,000 in employee training, aircraft tooling and modifications to the facility over the last 18 months, with further investment to be determined by the prevailing market. There is no doubt that there are significant opportunities for this facility in Townsville.

The group has all of the necessary Civil Aviation Safety Authority approvals and it has the people. It has a total staff of 32 and additional personnel are available from other Hawker Pacific facilities, should the need arise. They have airframe capabilities across a wide range of aircraft, including some of the new Boeing series and the Airbus series, and, of course, the regionally operating aircraft of Saabs, Fokkers and Metros. The plant has engine capabilities across a wide range of engines and, in component capabilities, the opportunity to repair those. Well done to Hawker Pacific. They have a bright future in Townsville.