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National Jet Express (NJE) has added two new aircraft to its charter and FIFO fleet.
The Dash 8-Q400 VH-8QC (pictured) and Embraer E190 VH-8EB bring the airline’s total fleet to 26, including 11 Q400s and eight E190s. It will use the new planes to service its growing Queensland operations and bolster its operating base in Western Australia.
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NJE added its tenth Q400 in September last year and its seventh E190 last March and said the expanding fleet would support increased demand for resources contracts.
“NJE notices the resource sector being increasingly mindful of their duty of care towards their staff and the environment and therefore are turning away from the 20-to-30-year-old fuel-guzzling aircraft still used by most of the other charter operators,” said Alex Ananian-Cooper, executive director of business development for NJE.
“NJE has one of Australia’s most modern, reliable, and fuel-efficient fleets for the resource sector, and our customers tell us they highly value the comfort, environmental benefits and reliability that come with operating these aircraft.
“To meet the increasing demand for our services, we continue to actively source additional aircraft and hope to add a couple more aircraft in this calendar year.”
NJE has also been increasingly taking on Alliance in Queensland, with a major contract announced in May 2023 to provide services to BHP Mitsubishi Alliance in the Sunshine State. The first flights under the new contract took off in July 2023.
Rex purchased NJE in 2022 for $48 million after the Flying Kangaroo announced a bid for the rival FIFO operator; that deal, though, was in April 2023 nixed by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, and both Qantas and Alliance walked away from it in October 2023 in one of the first major decisions for new chief executive Vanessa Hudson.
Before it was forced to axe its capital-city jet operations after entering administration at the end of July, Rex briefly used NJE E190s to operate flights between Adelaide and Perth.
The carrier also operates four British Aerospace 146s for nighttime freight operations to the east coast and Adelaide and three Dash 8-100s for FIFO operations in Papua New Guinea and between PNG and Cairns.
