Skytraders
30 years ago, when the principals of Skytraders founded the company their focus was on the intercontinental airfreight market. Early flights were performed with the Swingtail CL44, Boeing 707F and the proven DC855F and 63F aircraft. Air charter regimes were restrictive and split charters were not permitted in Australia. Skytraders active lobbying persuaded successive governments to adopt a policy of ongoing deregulation of the international air charter industry.
One of the company's first long-term programmes commenced in late 1978 when Skytraders contracted for the weekly movement of 40 tonne DC8 loads of fresh lamb and produce to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. With the introduction of 747 freighters Skytraders pioneered the movement of live cattle from Australia and also developed special containers for the transport of fresh chilled carcass beef direct from abattoirs to end users in Japan. By 1990 Skytraders had become Australia's largest shipper of export airfreight, later that year the Australian Federal Government recognised the company's achievements with the award of the Austrade Gold Medal.
In 1993 in conjunction with Qantas and DHL, Skytraders commenced a nightly express service between Sydney and Auckland utilising a Boeing 727-100 freighter. The programme addressed the need to move large numbers of racehorses at the same time as meeting the international express operators requirement to have a specialist aircraft scheduled to enable close of business pick up and next morning delivery on each side of the Tasman.
In 2000 Skytraders responded to an Australian Commonwealth Government ÎCall for Registration of InterestÌ for the design and construction of an Air Transport System for Antarctica. This was followed by a formal ÎRequest for ProposalÌ that resulted in Skytraders being awarded a contract for the provision of a range of Antarctic air services under a long-term agreement.
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