Wellington-based Vincent
Aviation's Australian operation has been put in receivership in what the
airline says is a bid to shore up its New Zealand business. Vincent ran a fleet
of nine leased aircraft and employed 80 people in Australia where it had set up
a subsidiary largely to service the mining industry. Chief executive Peter
Vincent said the company had spent "millions of dollars" on the
operation since 2001 but demand had dropped and attempts to find a buyer had
failed. "We've had three prospective purchasers fall through so in the end
had no option but to put the Australian arm of the company into receivership.
It wasn't forced on us by a bank or anything." Vincent said some
passengers who had paid in cash would become an unsecured creditor but that would
be a "very small proportion" of passengers would be affected.
"The business has been running at a loss for some time and it got to the
stage where we couldn't continue to prop it up. Trading conditions had become
increasingly difficult." He blamed the slowdown in mining and also high
compliance costs. "We're not the first airline that has failed and won't
be the last probably.' Vincent's Australian operations were based in Darwin and
had just been awarded a scheduled passenger route from Sydney to western New
South Wales. In New Zealand the company flies the Life Flight Trust air
ambulance, provides charter aircraft for Air New Zealand and private operators.
He said the failure in Australia had put pressure on the business. "I'd
love to say it doesn't but the situation in Australia has put a strain on New
Zealand operation for a long time which we're trying to alleviate. We're
hopeful that without that loss that the New Zealand company can continue.
" He said the New Zealand operation was profitable. "It is separate
and the reason we've done this is to ensure the continued viability of the New
Zealand operation. It's going to take a little while for people to get
confidence back in us." Vincent was set up in 1990.
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