Australia is a vast country with long traveling distances between some of its cities and towns. The really remote towns have their own set of challenges being so far away from everywhere, being so far away from access to critical services like medical help, counselling, education and training. Quite often the airport in these remote towns is the lifeblood of the community. Without the airport the community could not exist and certainly could not provide access to supplies and services to the people who live there.
Oceania Aviation is very proud to operate in a number of remote community airports in locations like Ayers Rock, Horn Island and Weipa. All of these communities rely heavily on the safe and reliable operation of the airport to service the community and provide for the people who live there.
It is quite challenging for our staff to live in these remote locations away form the major cities and, often away for their families for long periods of time. They do this to provide these services to rural communities and do so very proudly. Our staff understand the importance of keeping the airport working in these towns. The airport in Ayers Rock provides all of the tourism that keeps the local communities and businesses going, feeding a constant supply of tourists to the Ayers Rock Resort keeps the business there viable, and provides jobs and income for all of the local people so they can support their families and gives First Nations People an opportunity to share their history with visitors.
On Weipa, our airport keeps a flow of fly in/fly out workers up to the mine there. This facility is crucial to provide bauxite for Australia’s Alumina smelters which then provide aluminium to the Australian industries as well and the export markets that keep our economy going. Without the airport at Weipa this incredibly valuable resource could not be mined effectively.
The Horn Island Airport is there to support all the local Torres Straight Islander communities that live in the region. It provided transportation to medical services in Cairns and also takes students to other locations for education and training purposes. The people of the Torres Straights rely heavily on this airport to support their communities. It also provided transport services for the Australian Government border protection staff to look after and maintain our northern border to ensure Australian waters are protected from illegal fishing operators from the North and protection of our borders.
We are extremely proud of our staff that work in these remote locations and work hard to maintain flights and airport operations for the provision of these services. It is very challenging and can be very lonely at times but our staff stand up to the challenge and do a truly fantastic job. This is the Oceania Aviation purpose.