Mineral Resources’ new internal airline, MinRes Air, has taken to the skies for the first time with the inaugural flight landing in the Pilbara.
The flight transported east coast-based MinRes employees and contractors from Brisbane Airport to the company’s Wodgina and Ken’s Bore mine sites on Tuesday, 2 July.
The A319 aircraft completed the 3,600km cross-country journey from Brisbane to Wodgina, a world-class lithium mine located 120km south of Port Hedland, in five hours and 40 minutes.
The aircraft, which features the new MinRes Air livery, was refurbished to provide an extra 25cm of legroom to ensure those onboard travel in comfort.
MinRes Air is staffed by a highly experienced team of pilots, cabin crew, engineers and ground staff who have flown and worked across Australia and internationally.
MinRes Executive General Manager, People Facilities and Logistics Bethanie Ibrahim said: “Seeing the MinRes colours proudly displayed on an aircraft is an incredibly exciting milestone for the business.
“MinRes Air is one of the ways we are redefining the fly in, fly out employee experience by setting a new standard in the resources industry for facilities, food and flights.
“This industry-first investment will improve safety and productivity by ensuring our people travel to and from site as quickly, conveniently and comfortably as possible.
“We have assembled an outstanding team that has decades of experience in the aviation sector and look forward to our first Perth flights taking off soon.”
For the initial services, MinRes Air has partnered with Skytraders, an Australian-owned airline that has operated the Brisbane-Pilbara route for MinRes since January.
The weekly direct flights to and from Brisbane significantly reduced the travel time and cost for MinRes employees and contractors who live in Queensland or elsewhere on the east coast.
In the second phase of the rollout, flights between the MinRes Air terminal at Perth Airport and Ken’s Bore will launch in the near future to service the Onslow Iron project.
Australia’s newest iron ore project, Onslow Iron, delivered its first shipment in May and is on track to ramp up to nameplate capacity of 35 million tonnes per year by June 2025.
