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| Founded | 1927 | ||||||
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| Ceased operations | 1993 | ||||||
| Hubs | Perth | ||||||
| Parent company | Ansett Transport Industries | ||||||
| Headquarters | Perth, Western Australia | ||||||
| Key people | Horrie Miller Macpherson Robertson | ||||||
MacRobertson Miller Airlines (MMA) was a Western Australian airline that operated between 1927 and 1993. After being purchased by Ansett Transport Industries in 1968, it was eventually rebranded Ansett WA.
In 1919, Horrie Miller purchased an Armstrong Whitworth F.K.8 from the United Kingdom and launched the Commercial Aviation Company, in Rochester, Victoria. On 8 October 1920, he registered the Commercial Aviation Company. In 1927, the Commercial Aviation Company commenced weekly Adelaide to Mount Gambier services with an Airco DH.9. [1]
During May 1928, in partnership with the backing of chocolate millionaire Macpherson Robertson, Miller formed MacRobertson-Miller Aviation. In October 1934, MacRobertson-Miller Aviation transferred its main base to Perth, after it won a Commonwealth Government contract for airmail services to Daly Waters in the Northern Territory that had previously been operated by West Australian Airways. [1] [2] [3]
In 1955, MacRobertson-Miller Aviation and Airlines WA merged with MacRobertson's holding a 62% shareholding. [4] MacRobertson Miller operated a network of more than 32,000 km, from Esperance in Western Australia to Darwin in the Northern Territory. [1]
On 19 April 1963, Ansett Transport Industries purchased MacRobertson's 62% shareholding and a further 8% from Horrie Miller after MMA, in desperate need of funds for new Fokker F27 Friendship aircraft and planned new jet aircraft, approached Ansett to purchase a major share. [5] Ansett purchased the remaining 30% in November 1968. It was rebranded as MacRobertson Miller Airline Services in June 1969, Airlines of Western Australia in July 1981 and Ansett WA in November 1984. [6] The Ansett WA operation was absorbed into Ansett Australia in 1993. [1]
Early aircraft used by the airline included the Fokker Universal, Avro Ansons, de Havilland DH.84 Dragons, Lockheed Model 10 Electras and Douglas DC-3s. Later aircraft included the Fokker F27 Friendship turboprop, a leased Vickers Viscount turboprop, a Douglas DC-9 jet leased from Ansett, Piaggio P.166 twin prop aircraft, de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter STOL-capable turboprops, [7] Fokker F28 Fellowship jets (both the series 1000 and 4000 twinjets) [8] and British Aerospace BAe 146 jets. [9]
Thanks to a combination of the long legs flown between destinations in the sparsely-inhabited Pilbara region, an effective rostering and operations system and a well-honed practice of short turnarounds (usually 25 minutes, as is now typical on modern low-cost carriers), the airline's Fokker aircraft had some of the highest utilisation rates in the world and accumulated some of the highest mileages. For 1965 the company's F27s averaged 4150 flight hours. The first F27 purchased by the airline, registered VH-MMS and named RMA Swan, became the first F27 in the world to reach 10,000 flight hours and later the first to accumulate 20,000 hours. It flew over 40,000 hours with MMA, setting another world record for an F27 with a daily utilisation average of 10.66 hours, before being redeployed to parent company Ansett Australia in 1972. The later Fokker F28 fleet was also distinguished by extremely high utilisation - F28 VH-FKA RMA Pilbara became the first of the type to fly 20,000 and 30,000 hours and logged nearly 63,000 hours before it was withdrawn in 1995. The fleet averaged 8.5 flying hours per day in the mid-1970s. Aircraft on the main route between Perth and Darwin via four or five airports in the Pilbara, and with services to Gove and Groote Eylandt in the Northern Territory before making the return flight via the same ports of call, would take just over 22 hours to make the round trip, of which over 13 hours was spent in the air.
MMA's F28s flew what was at the time the world's longest twinjet route, and certainly the world's longest F28 flight - Perth to Kununurra. According to the 5 April 1970 MMA system timetable, the airline was operating F28 jet service into Dampier, Darwin, Derby, Kununurra, Perth and Port Hedland at this time. [10] MMA also flew one of the world's shortest scheduled air services, from Perth to Rottnest Island flying the Douglas DC-3 and later the Fokker F-27 Friendship. MMA's first Fokker F28 Fellowship was actually leased from Braathens SAFE of Norway (VH-MMJ c/n 11013) and returned to Fokker as PH-ZAH after the first of the ordered aircraft arrived. VH-FKD was originally purchased for Ansett division Airlines of New South Wales but transferred to MMA when it proved uneconomical on the NSW intrastate routes. Ironically this aircraft returned to Airlines of New South Wales service several years later.
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Media related to MacRobertson Miller Airlines at Wikimedia Commons
