Goldfields Air Services, based at Kalgoorlie-Boulder airport in Australia, has purchased a second King Air C90, which is currently being reconfigured for its new role. Goldfields has three King Air 200s in operation, mostly for mining missions, but MD and chief pilot Dougal McQuie says that the C90s tend to be a better option for smaller groups of four to five passengers.

“The C90 has turned out to be a significantly better option than what I first anticipated,” he comments. “We have a large amount of clients that don’t necessarily need all of the seats that a B200 provides, and who jump at the option of a slightly smaller, slightly more cost effective option. Our first C90 fairly quickly became the busiest aircraft in our fleet, doing upwards of 450 hours per year. The second C90 will be operating out of our Perth base.”

From its bases in Kalgoorlie and Jandakot, Goldfields operates general charter, mostly into the interior of Western Australia. The majority of these flights are 45–60 minute legs with eight or nine passengers in the B200 or slightly fewer in the C90. “We offer a wide variety of services including search and rescue and survey work over a massive area,” McQuie continues. “Some of these get a little interesting, for example looking for lost prospectors or tourists that have wandered off. We were operating a very successful scenic flight operation down on the south coast of Western Australia prior to the pandemic. It was a market we had been developing for a few years, and it was going really well. Most of our clients were from Europe or Asia, and that has taken a huge hit. Whilst the domestic market has rallied it will be a long time if ever before it gets back to what we were doing in February of 2020.

“Our focus is to continue providing a service second to none for our existing clients and to expand our charter and flying training markets.”