Australia’s newest passenger airline, Strategic Airlines, is seeking permission from the International Air Services Commission to fly across the Pacific to US according to a report in the SMH.
The airline, which runs a fleet of aircraft which includes four 20-y-o Airbus A320-200 series and a 10-y-o A330-223 ex-Lufthansa aircraft also announced in March that the company was moving to Brisbane where maintenance and corporate operations would be based.
It has also been widely rumoured that the airline will change its name to Air Australia to create a more identifiable consumer brand, although a Perth flying school already operates under that name.
Strategic COO, Damien Vasta, declined to reveal to which US cities the airline would fly, instead hinting that VC might instead open new routes rather than attempt to compete head on.
The company was initially formed in 1991 as a cargo and logistics company but has since moved into passenger operations forming Strategic Airlines in 2009. It operates routes under its own name currently between Perth and Derby, Perth and Bali, Brisbane and Townsville, Townsville and Bali, Brisbane and Port Hedland, Port Hedland and Bali, with non-stop services soon to start between Brisbane and Bali, Brisbane and Phuket, and Melbourne and Phuket. It also provides an A320 for Solomon Airlines, operating three flights weekly between Brisbane and Honiara.
Former Ansett and Virgin Blue PR chief, Heather Jeffery, now represents the airline.
Further information at the website: www.flystrategic.com.au
