Clear skies ahead for Ian
WORKING IN THE AVIATION INDUSTRY OVER THE PAST 20 YEARS, IAN BUTTON HAS ENJOYED A DIFFERENT VIEW OF LIFE IN THE FAR NORTH, WRITES HAYDEN SMITH
There have been untold moments, across decades in the Cairns aviation sector, when businessman Ian Button has had to pinch himself. The Whitfield man and motorcycle buff will soon mark 10 years at the helm of Independent Aviation, a nationwide air charter procurement company based on Sheridan St.
“It’s really varied. We can be coordinating movie stars out to a site, moving crucial freight parts or saving somebody’s life the next moment,” he said. “It’s the variety that keeps me passionate about it.”
THERE have been untold moments, across decades in the Cairns aviation sector, when businessman Ian Button has had to pinch himself.
The Whitfield man and motorcycle buff will soon mark 10 years at the helm of Independent Aviation, a nationwide air charter procurement company based on Sheridan St.
“It’s really varied. We can be co-ordinating movie stars out to a site, moving crucial freight parts or saving somebody’s life the next moment,” he said.
“It’s the variety that keeps me passionate about it.”
When Mr Button joined In- dependent Aviation, in September 2007, it was a case of “three blokes working in the back bedroom of a house”.
But the business, founded in 1989, has soared to a new level since it locked in a contract to manage State Government flights about eight years ago.
“It was the first time they had actually appointed a brokerage specifically to manage their flying throughout the state,” Mr Button said.
“We were successful in winning that contract and started in the middle of 2010.
“That’s been recently retendered and we’re awaiting the outcome of that process.”
Born in Sydney and raised “in the bush”, Mr Button worked for Coastwatch in Darwin before moving to Cairns in the mid-1990s.
He spent several years doing coastal surveillance in the Far North.
“That was everything from looking for people smugglers to illegal fishing and patrolling our economic exclusion zone,” Mr Button said.
“I used to get paid to fly over the Great Barrier Reef; we’d pinch ourselves doing marine park patrols, because it was so beautiful from the air.”
He was general manager of GBR Helicopters from 1999-2002 and, before joining Independent Aviation, oversaw flight operations for the now-defunct Australian Airlines in Cairns.
But in 2006 the Far Northbased airline was scrapped by Qantas, which decided to focus on growing Jetstar.
“A friend of mine asked if I wanted to join the team at Independent Aviation,” Mr Button said.
“It was really the potential I saw to do it better, chase the contract-type work and present a different level of service to what they’d done previously.
“We’re a fee-per service and we made the fee far more reasonable. That was the start of the growth, I suppose, of the company.”
Mr Button said the business
IAN BUTTON WILL SOON MARK 10 YEARS AT THE HELM OF INDEPENDENT AVIATION, A NATIONWIDE AIR CHARTER PROCUREMENT COMPANY BASED ON SHERIDAN ST
was, essentially, a charter flight brokerage.
“Ultimately we act on behalf of our clients to go out to market and co-ordinate the most cost-effective option,” he said.
“Every job is like a mini tender. Everybody that meets the specific requirements is given the opportunity to quote and we then go back to the client with a response.”
It has been a busy 18 months for Independent Aviation, which now has almost 20 employees.
Last year the business bought 24 Hour Connexion,
EVERY JOB IS LIKE A MINI TENDER. EVERYBODY THAT MEETS THE SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS IS GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO QUOTE, AND WE THEN GO BACK TO THE CLIENT WITH A RESPONSE IAN BUTTON an around-the-clock phone service for businesses.
“We already operated 24hours and saw it as an opportunity to blend two businesses together,” Mr Button said.
The company also recently secured a contract to procure flights for the Commonwealth Games Queen’s Baton Relay.
“It’s really good fun being involved in that sort of project, quite often they want to fly into air strips that you can’t put a mid-sized jet into,” he said.
Mr Button said some of the business’ work – such as organ transfers – was a matter “of life and death”.
“We’ll get a call in the middle of the night, saying we need to co-ordinate a jet to take a team to retrieve an organ and then bring it back in a timely manner so they can put it in someone else,” he said.
With Cairns’ tourism on the rise, Mr Button can see nothing but clear skies ahead for Independent Aviation.
“People are looking for that different edge. Indigenous tourism, I think, is a big growth area,” he said.
“It is people going to more remote locations and high-end clientele looking for that unique experience.
“We’ve got huge potential now with direct flights from China. They’re going to want to see more of the Cape and remote areas.”