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Aviation veteran Lee Schofield has joined the board of HMC Group, the parent company of WA-based Nexus Airlines.
Schofield, formerly CEO of FIFO operator Alliance Airlines and currently COO of aeromedical organisation LifeFlight, has also served as vice-chairman of the Regional Aviation Association of Australia. He took up the position of independent director and chair at HMC this month.
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“During his ten-year tenure at Alliance Airlines, Lee guided the business through a significant fleet expansion and delivered exceptional financial performance,” said HMC Group managing director Michael McConachy.
“With the HMC Group continuing to expand its tourism and aviation operations, we believe Lee’s expertise and experience will provide considerable value for our continued growth.”
HMC’s subsidiaries include Nexus, Aviair, HeliSpirit, Australian Helicopter Academy, and a number of hotels, restaurants and other tourism businesses.
In a statement, Schofield said he is “delighted to be joining such a rapidly expanding and successful Group of tourism and aviation businesses servicing regional Western Australia and beyond”.
“The HMC Group’s businesses are located in a part of Australia that has such a bright future in regard to tourism, mining and future economic prosperity, with aviation playing a vital role in overcoming the challenges of the vast distances involved,” he said.
Nexus Airlines launched in May last year with five 76-seater de Havilland Dash 8-Q400 aircraft on three routes: a direct Geraldton–Perth service, and multi-stop services from Geraldton–Karratha–Port Hedland–Broome and Broome–Kununurra–Darwin.
It began Perth-Geraldton flights in July, followed several weeks later by the commencement of its northern services.
McConachy said last May that the airline’s name represents its goal of providing new and improved connections between towns and cities in regional WA.
“We have a proud history of supporting and contributing to regional communities and we understand that reliable and regular air connectivity is a key economic driver and is fundamentally important in attracting and retaining people,” he said.
“I’m confident that Nexus Airlines will enhance the livability of our regional towns and will boost our regional economies.”
The WA government has committed $4.05 million over four years until June 2027 to expand the state’s Inter-Regional Flight Network (IRFN), having granted Aviair a monopoly to establish the service in 2019.
