Alliance signs new five-year contract with BHP Billiton

Alliance Airlines has signed a new five-year contract with mining giant BHP Billiton that maintains service to Olympic Dam until 2021.

The new contract, which begins after the current deal between Alliance and BHP expires in 2016, involves operating 15 flights a week between Adelaide and Olympic Dam, with the flexibility to add extra services should there be demand for more flights.

Alliance managing director Scott McMillan said he was pleased to have agreed to a new contract well before the existing contract ended.

“We believe that this success is not only a product of responding to the customers’ needs but also the reliability and on time performance of the Alliance product,” McMillan said in a statement on Monday.

“Alliance is passionate about long term relationships with all its customers and BHP Billiton is a part of this.”

Alliance said it has also secured a 12-month contract extension with Citic Pacific Mining for flying between Perth and Karratha, as well as won new contracts that include new flights in Western Australia to Christmas Creek, where one of Fortescue Metals Group’s iron ore mines is located, and expanded services between Perth, Newman and Port Hedland.

The fly-in/fly-out and charter operator said at its 2014/15 full year results in August, when the company posted a $36.6 million statutory net loss due to fleet writedowns and other one-off charges, it was focusing on securing more non-mining work and reducing costs in the year ahead amid a “sustained downturn in the resources industry”.