Please join us in welcoming Chinta Air as one of our newest RAAA members.
Chinta Air opened for business on 1 July 2003 with its main base at Ceduna, South Australia.
The owners are Noel Schwarz, an innovative farmer on the West Coast of South Australia, who learned to fly to fill in time during the 1999 drought. He and his partner, Felicity Brown, bought their first aircraft in 2000, and promptly realised that flying is an expensive hobby.
The couple set up an air charter business, and opened the doors with one aircraft, and one part-time pilot.
Now, Chinta Air operates aircraft across South Australia from three full-time bases, offering the wide variety of services that are required to keep any GA business afloat. On any given day, pilots may be tasked with providing scenic flights over different attractions, flying freight, transferring passengers across the Outback, providing a photographer with the best angle for a shot, or looking for stray livestock.
Chinta Air has a sister business, Chinta Tours, which is a licenced travel agency specialising in tailor made air safaris across the Outback. Guests may climb aboard for a Melbourne to Uluru tour that lasts for a week, or depart Perth for a three week adventure to Cairns, following the coast.
The name “Chinta” is a Pitjantjarra word meaning “sun rise” or “morning sun” – a reference to the early starts which are part of any bush pilot’s life. The logo is a gibra (similar to a bush turkey) which flies for a short distance before landing for a feed and a look around (a perfect representation for an air charter business). The gibra is also rare and endangered, and in need of support if it is going to survive.
To find out more about Chinta Air please go to www.chintaair.com.au or call (08) 8625 9051.