CAQA SkyBridge Aviation
CAQA SkyBridge Aviation is a regional airline that connects inland New South Wales towns with each other and with Sydney using a fleet of eight turboprop aircraft seating between 19 and 34 passengers. The airline carries about 190,000 passengers a year on scheduled services, flies charter for mining, health and government clients, and moves freight including time-critical medical and agricultural consignments. Alongside the airline, SkyBridge runs its own ground handling at each port and a flight training academy that trains commercial pilots and flight instructors, many of whom go on to fly for the airline.
The business is organised into six departments: flight operations, cabin services, ground operations, the flight training academy, passenger services and a safety and compliance team that reports to the chief executive. Flight crew and cabin crew are rostered on a 28-day pattern with sign-on from 5:00 am for the first departure and the last arrival at 9:30 pm. Ground crews work early, day and late shifts across the ramp, baggage and freight sheds. The academy flies seven days a week, weather permitting, and shares the maintenance hangar and the aerodrome with the airline.
SkyBridge operates under an air operator's certificate and a Part 141 and 142 flight training approval, and runs a safety management system with a hazard register, confidential safety reporting, fatigue risk management, a drug and alcohol management program and a transport security program. Every occurrence is reported, classified and investigated, and safety performance indicators are reviewed monthly by the safety action group and quarterly by the safety review board. Work health and safety obligations on the ramp, in the freight shed and in the hangar are managed through documented procedures, ground support equipment inspections and daily toolbox briefings.