Ryanair flight takes off in Italy (file image) (Image: Getty)
A new airline is looking to conquer the challenging Australian aviation space by using learning from a successful European counterpart, as airlines could feel the pinch of jet fuel prices and have to pass costs on to customers.
Zinc Aviation will use ultra-low-cost carrier Ryanair as its base model. The founder of the new airline, former Qantas executive Peter Kelly, is looking to secure around $140 million to get the startup going.
He has said that he has the formula to overcome the challenges other airlines operating in the country have succumbed to.
Kelly reportedly wants to model the airline on Irish low-cost carrier Ryanair, the Financial Review reported. Zinc’s efficiency will be focussed on “sweating the assets and running the planes for 12 hours a day minimum”.
The airline’s website describes itself as “Australia’s first independent ultra low cost carrier.”
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The website continued: “Zinc is being established to exploit a once-in-a-generation structural shift in Australian domestic aviation – the opening of Western Sydney International Airport.”
“Purpose-built for cost leadership and price discipline. Founded by a team with direct experience building successful Australian domestic airlines and uLCCs from the ground up.”
Australia has a long list of unsuccessful aviation ventures, with airlines like Compass, Impulse and Bonza no longer operating.
“Zinc’s founder has watched every one of them. Each failure was predictable. The business models were flawed from inception – and he could articulate exactly why, long before the market rendered its verdict,” the website reads.
“Structural slot and gate constraints of SYD. Structural cost disadvantage. Undercapitalisation. The wrong aircraft. The wrong routes. The wrong moment. He knows precisely why they failed. Zinc has been engineered so that none of those reasons apply.”
Ryanair passengers board a plane at the Thessaloniki Airport (file image) (Image: Getty)
The airline claims that for the first time, a new domestic airline will access the Sydney market without the constraints that have affected every previous challenger.
The airline will operate a single fleet type – the Airbus A321neo. It will be a focused network of high-frequency trunk routes anchored at WSI, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane.
“A novel base-assigned operating model, unprecedented in the Australian context, keeps aircraft productive, crew costs lean, and overnight complexity eliminated. The model is stress-tested,” the website read.
According to the Financial Review, Kelly is planning to secure finance to pay for aircraft deposits and fund its operations.
But the airline is entering the market at an unprecedented time for global fuel prices. The conflict in the Middle East has driven up global oil prices and poses a threat to jet fuel costs, which could be passed on to customers.
This story originally appeared on Express.co.uk
