Jeff LeeHello and welcome to this episode of cargo facts connect, the podcast of cargo facts, the newsletter of record for the air cargo and freighter aircraft industries for over 40 years. I’m Jeff Lee, editor of cargo facts and it’s Friday, the 20th of December, which means that this is our final episode for the year. And for that, I spoke with George Chisholm, CEO of Chisholm Enterprises and executive director of Texel Air, to discuss the company’s achievements in 2024 and look at what’s in store for 2025.
Jeff LeeHello, George. Welcome to the show. Good to have you.
George ChisholmHi, Jeff. Yeah. Thank you for for having me.
Jeff LeeFirst of all, happy belated Bahrain National Day.
George ChisholmThank you.It’s. Yeah, we’re just coming out of the national day here, and it’s a larger than usual one, so.
Jeff LeeSo you’re in Bahrain right now, but any plans for Christmas? Are you going down to New Zealand or just staying here?
George ChisholmIt’s been a pretty extensive year of travel. Obviously visiting numerous cargo facts shows around the world amongst other events, and so I think just staying put will be would be my my choice this year.
Jeff LeeYeah, yeah. I mean you you have certainly done quite a lot this year. And I think I think the culmination of that in some ways was, you know, the major milestone of your the your 10th anniversary just a couple months ago
George ChisholmYeah, that’s right. So Texel Air Bahrain, just in September celebrated its 10th year of operations and you know huge huge milestone for the Chisholm family. Yes, business that we started back in 2013 registering it, but actually we only went operational in 2014. So yeah, a huge, huge milestone for us to to be 10 years on.
Jeff LeeEven feel like it’s been 10 years. And you know what are the major things that you you think you’ve learned and achieved in the in the 10 years?
George ChisholmYeah. So it’s, I actually did a a small talk at our end of year function. We just had on that and you know we we never set out to to own an airline and we we sort of got into it by default, but it’s been a fantastic journey. Starting with very humble beginnings of, you know, two leased airplanes and one pick up truck and some Porter cabins as a line station, you know some very basic things and you know here today we’re in Bahrain, we’re five aircraft. Owned and operated, we have. At least we at least ATR as well, supporting some of our flying. And then we’ve also just in the last few weeks acquired our hangar facility that we were tenants in but doubled the size of that facility. Now by taking over the other side. So it’s it’s been. Quite a big, big year outside of just the 10 years, yeah.
Jeff LeeWell you certainly need the that extra space given your your growing fleet now. How? How much work do you need to do on on this new facility to or is it already ready? Basically for for you.
George ChisholmIt’s largely, you know, it’s a It’s a sister Hanger to the one that we’re already in, so there isn’t too much work that we need to do. We obviously have to move some offices over and but that’s timely. We’re doing a lot of back office support for our Australasia operations with dispatch and camo and different things here from the Middle East, so certainly a growing workforce here and then. On the actual hangar front, it’s been growing too. You know, we tried to work with all the operators here on, on the airfield and support them so. That’s been a slow burner over the years, but it’s now to a point where we could move into a second hangar, which is great to see. So we’re excited by that.
Jeff LeeAnd of course, you now have. Five, as you were saying, 5 raters on the Bahrain AOC. But. Since starting the new New Zealand AOC last year, you’ve quickly grown that and now also have 5737800 BCFS down with texel air Australasia so. Is the plan going forward? Are you still aiming to basically double that? Use even fleet over the next couple of years?
George ChisholmYeah. So it’s, it’s I’ve been a tremendous hit from everybody and you know, amazing to see what people can do by pulling together and, you know, going from zero aircraft and 0 AOC to to five has been a tremendous challenge by everybody. And we have plans to grow that fleet further, yes. So this year we should be growing somewhere between 7:00 and 8:00 aircraft. Total fleet size in in New Zealand, Australia. And the first one of which should be arriving in probably end of quarter one. So we we should be taking on our six airplane down there and then hopefully number 7 and #8 throughout the course of the year. So I don’t have the specifics on the tails or the the companies yet, but in due course I’ll definitely share that.
Jeff LeeYeah, it’s, it’s interesting. I remember we were talking, I think in at the Dubai Air Show. Well a year ago now, more than a year ago now. But you were telling me about the? Your how you’re registering those those airplanes in New Zealand and? Yeah, there was just. I thought it was an interesting story. The the way you you name register those airplanes.
George ChisholmYeah. So we’re a family business and Again, like we start these traditions not with dreams of scale. So, but you know the original concept as we like to name every aircraft after an important woman within the in the family originally. But we’ve now exhausted that and we’ve now expanded that to the company. So you know my senior finance manager Karen has has an aircraft named after her, obviously direct family members and then. One of my. Senior managers. He runs one of our programs here in Bahrain. Sally, she has an aircraft named so. I haven’t got any names for the the future ones. That’s that’s that’s the chairman’s level of the company. But certainly will will put forward names of, you know, people that deserve to have their name on the side of the air.For sure.
Jeff LeeYeah. And then, you know, recently in New Zealand you got the approval to operate flights with extended diversion under the extended diversion time. Certification. And that’s, you know, really important for New Zealand and you also plan to potentially fly Trans Tasman and of course that approval really facilitates that, doesn’t it?
George ChisholmIt does. And you know, that was a a really big effort by the team again. And and also we had a lot of support obviously from Boeing they they had to get it approved by the FAA and you know it was really a collaborative effort. We are both driving for. The same results. But yeah, if I speak specifically to Australasia, it is very important. To cross between Perth and Melbourne, which is one of our key routes that we operate for Team Global Express, you know that that there is a non ETOPS or EDTO route. But the you know, the preferential route is on the Ed TO120 routing so that that’s where we’ve first deployed the the capability that’s straight out-of-the-box. You know from I think it was we got given the approval on a Friday and on. The Monday we started flying it so. But it’ll now help us grow further. Some of the Trans Tasman we’ve done a few charters, you know across the Tasman but you know sort of to run those scheduled, you know type operations and you really need that safety net of having the EDTO 120. And the reason being is you know it’s it’s about a three hour stretch of water and there is an alternate in the north called Norfolk Island, but it is susceptible to weather and does close. And if it closes then your your routing becomes tremendously longer so. We’ve kind of had to hold back our plans going Trans Tasman until we got the edto approval, which you know, happy to say we have it now. And now once we get these few more aircraft into our fleet. Then we will start to fly that route pretty extensively. You know, mostly between Melbourne, Sydney and Auckland and Christchurch in a in a variety of rout configurations. But that’s the the the long term plan there is the the new aircraft coming in Will will be going on to those routes.
Jeff LeeSo. For the Melbourne Perth flight. Are you doing the edto 120 on every single flight or is it vary day by day? Because I think I was checking. I was looking at those flights and the the path, the flight path or the routing. Kind of changes.
George ChisholmSo a good catch and no, obviously we we we choose the best efficient route for the day and that really is dependent on winds. So sometimes the winds dictate that, but generally speaking. You know, if the Edto 120 is called for, they’ll use that but. If the the winds are better in another orientation, that will go that way. So it does. It does vary on that route a little bit because of that difference in the wind.
Jeff LeeYeah, that makes sense. And you, you have some very interesting operations with Texel air Australia. You have. You earlier this year, you’ve flew to the Chatham Islands for the first time.
George ChisholmSo we we with the first big jet to land there. The airport itself actually went through an upgrade a couple. I think it was just before COVID hit to enable, you know, 32737 sized aircraft, but it never materialised. And you know, we saw an opportunity there to, to be the first and start that route. So we’ve, we’ve now done a total of 2 charters and we’ve taken in some. Seedling trees to there’s a reforestation effort going on on the island. So we’ve been flying that in and then? Building on the way out, some of the seafood to to connect on to, we’ve been doing Chatham Islands director, Auckland so, but it’s a pretty interesting operation and we’ve we’ve put a lot of effort in as an airline to make that a success. From investing in ground support equipment actually sending our own handling team there ahead to receive the airplane. We actually have 220 foot containers. A mobile office unit with a Starlink connection. And it’s quite a bit that goes into operating in those remote sites. And you know something that we’ve been doing for many, many years out of the Middle East, you know, across Africa and and and we’ve just taken those Lear. To A to a new region now. So yeah, it’s it’s exciting to see that.
Jeff LeeYeah. And you know, in addition to carrying seedlings and seafood, you recently carried a lot of horses and some pandas as well.
George ChisholmThat’s right. Yeah. So we were very lucky to, you know, Tge has a client working for the Adelaide Zoo and they obviously entrusted us with their special charters. So we we actually ran took two pandas home to Chengdu, China taking a quick tech stop in in Kota Kinabalu. But we we pre positioned crew there so. You know, we wanted to reduce any, you know, journey time on on these precious animals, so. It was a total of 15 hours flying, but minimal ground time in in Kota with a fresh crew and quick quick change and continue on to to Chengdu and then couple of weeks later just just this last week gone actually we were sent back up to Chengdu to. Pick up the replacement pandas so the pandas are only gifted you know on a temporary basis. And I think they’ve been in Adelaide for about 15 years. And so, yeah, we we help them get home and brought out a replacement pair. Reading pair to the Adelaide Zoo so yeah, really special flight. Lot of planning long distance, you know, but it shows you know the versatility of the 737 for charter missions and we really use that platform for a lot of charters more so in the Middle East at the moment but growing in Australasia as as we as. We, you know, gather some opportunities and out of the Middle East, we we’ve been moving about 18 to 17 horses of flight up to Spain from Bahrain using our. Specialty, you know, narrowbody horse stalls. And so yeah, we we like charters. It’s it’s part of our core business offering is to to always maximize those opportunities, so.
Jeff LeeI was gonna say the the crew, those flights, I’m sure they would have enjoyed a longer stopover in Kota.
George ChisholmYeah, we, I mean, like I said we we’ve been doing global charters on 7/3 sevens for for many years and you know we’ve we’ve gone as far away as South Korea from Bahrain as example. And to do that mission, we had a fresh crew in Thailand and You know, we take a tech stop in India. This is on our classic generation and hot swap. The crew in Thailand, so the aircraft continues and.You know some some charters call for that and so we’re we’re quite used to pre positioning crew around the world and you know having the redundancy on board with flying engineers and spares to make sure that those high priority missions like moving pandas is you know, the the risk is mitigated as best as possible to any sort of delay.
Jeff LeeRight. Actually Speaking of the classic generation, you just retired. Your final one. Couple months ago. And you know which marked basically the the end of that, that generation and now you you have only 800 freighters. So that you then you’ve been operating that that type for basically well since you started it’s been operating to 300.
George ChisholmYeah. And actually, even before Texel. Also, you know, we as Chisholm we’ve been operating 73 sevens since as early as 2008 through a variety of we didn’t have our own AOC but through partnerships and J vs and so yeah the the Classic 300 has been a platform we’ve known. Since about 2008. Always. We’ve always used the PEMCO converted version of it. It’s it’s served us well.
George ChisholmBut as all things you know, it’s sort of once we got the 700 series aircraft into our fleet and really start to understand the capabilities of the Ng platform from its performance range and you know reliability. Moving to the 800 for a full freighter was really a no brainer. And you know, we looked at it at the right time, I think and you know some opportunities arose. We took a different approach in COVID, where we chose to acquire. Passenger aircraft, as you know, there was an abundance of them at that time, which meant we probably missed out on some of those, you know, busier flying in in the COVID years, but meant that we had the right assets come the other side of it, so. And yet very happy we, you know, we’ve we’ve flown some pretty high hours per month per tail and you know knock on wood they they’re very reliable machine that just keep keep going. So yeah, we’re we’re very happy with the platform. Sad to see the 300 go. But we only had one left and the economics were just no longer stacking up to have a singular type with crew and parts. And you know, all of that complication.
Jeff LeeRight. And as you look to, as you were saying earlier, continue growing the BCF fleet, how are you finding? The the process of acquiring and converting your own aircraft, I mean, are you still going down that route because you have also taken on some leases? How? As we head into 2025. How difficult is it for you to find the right aircraft and and and buy it and then put it through conversion?
George ChisholmLike I I don’t think I’ve got any secrets here. But you know, at the moment the market is extremely tight. You know, I think the the ongoing issues between the, the Airbus narrowbody and the the Boeing narrowbody. New production is obviously having a knock on effect to the passenger markets demands, which ultimately means there’s, you know, less available aircraft out there for conversion. And obviously engines are limited to a singular type on the 737. So that makes that even a more finite res. So yeah, look, we’d love to be buying and converting them. But at the moment, you know, trying to find suitable candidates is is tough. We have taken on some some leases of, you know, short term to to cover that gap. And you know we assess it you know sort of quarter to quarter and still actively searching always in the market. But yeah, I think it’s good to see that you know the production line of Boeing is just just re energized which. Won’t have an immediate effect, but it’s a positive step and you know it’s all all a connected chain really. So and unfortunately in the freighter, converted aircraft space we’re we’re sort of at the bottom of that chain and that drives we’ve seen a significant cost increase of SP. Parts, you know, availability of engines, engine, shop time, you know, things like that and. And certainly the passenger airlines are not letting go of the probably the probably the more. The older, older fleet that they traditionally would have not flown at this age, they’re they’re holding on to it just because of the uncertainty. So. So yeah, it’s it’s it’s a challenge, but we’re we’re obviously still managing to grow making it work. You know, we’re investing into different things like we have a a brand new flight simulator coming to Bahrain for the Ng. So that’ll be delivered to us next October. It’s sort of a joint venture between an investment group and then also the Bahrain. Golf Aviation Academy which? Which will be hosting it and so making sure that we have a good. Pipeline of pilots because that’s another, you know, important piece. Make sure you’ve got the people to to make these machines operate and plenty of competition in that space as well.
Jeff LeeYeah.
George ChisholmSo we’ve got lots of growing carriers in, in the Middle East and and Australasia too. But yeah, we’re we’re, we’re OK. I mean, I think we can manage the, the, the growth projections that we’re we’re planning on, so.
Jeff LeeGood, good. Well, congratulations on the all the achievements of 2024 and good luck going into 2025 and we look forward to to seeing. Your fleet grow and all the other, all the rest of it. So thanks, George, and I’m sure we’ll see you at some point in 2025.
George ChisholmNo, thank you, Jeff. And you know, we really appreciate the interest that cargo facts has always taken in us. So, you know, wish you and the team a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. And you know, thank you for the continued interest.
Jeff LeeThanks and happy holidays to you too.
George ChisholmYes, thanks.
Jeff LeeThat was Texel Air Director and Chisholm Enterprises CEO George Chisholm. And that was 2024’s last episode of Cargo Facts Connect. Thank you very much for tuning in, and we’ll be back next year, but in the meantime, happy holidays to all of you, and do continue to visit cargofacts.com for more coverage of the freighter aircraft market.
