Mining company Mineral Resources Limited has commenced fly-in-fly-out (FIFO) flights using its in-house airline, MinRes Air (Perth International), and an A319-100 wet-leased from Skytraders (SND, Sydney Kingsford Smith).

Refurbished and repainted in MinRes Air's livery, the 15.5-year-old VH-VHP (msn 3757) completed a 3,600-kilometre sector from Brisbane International to Ken's Bore via Wodgina on July 2 with FIFO workers onboard. For most of this year, Mineral Resources has used Skytraders to operate FIFO flights in and out of Brisbane, but this week marks the debut of MinRes-branded flights.

During a half-yearly results announcement in February, Mineral Resources founder and MD Chris Ellison said the mining company already owned three airports and flying workers directly in without paying for overnight accommodation would save "tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars” annually.

Mineral Resources, which records revenues of around AUD5.5 billion Australian dollars (USD3.7 billion) annually, needs to carry around 5,000 workers per week on and off its remote sites, and a one-hour delay in starting a shift can cost the company around AUD1 million (USD670,000) in lost revenue, making an in-house airline a more cost-effective solution than relying on third-party operators.

However, the Skytraders lease is a stop-gap deal. MinRes Air has been hiring flight and ground crews and has reportedly recruited 20 captains and first officers at above-market rates. "We'll end up owning about four A319s by the end of this year," Ellison told shareholders. "We'll be the only mining company flying [our own aircraft]. We'll be direct out of Brisbane straight into Ken's Bore, Wodgina, Onslow, and shortly we'll be coming into Kambalda."

"Typically, a FIFO worker on the east coast has to pay their own fares to Perth overnight, at their own cost, and then they go up the Pilbara the next day," added Ellison. "So a day and a half each way, and they’ve got to write money out of their own pocket. We’re five-and-a-half hours from Brisbane, direct onto our mine sites, at our cost. We’re tapping a whole brand new workforce[...]. By the end of this year, all of our FIFO [flights] will be run by MinRes Air."

He concluded: "We’re going to reduce our camp sizes. We’re going to be able to land our people on-site at 5:30 in the morning, and they do a shift change at 6:00, and the night shift hops on the plane and goes home."