Australia’s MinRes Air Ferrying in Another A320

By Andrew Curran.

Australian mining and resources company Mineral Resources is ferrying in an A320-200 today, October 6, 2025, which it will operate under its MinRes Air brand. The in-house airline flies company employees from their homes in Australia’s capital cities to the company’s work sites in remote parts of Western Australia.

The 16.3-year-old plane, VH-8LI (msn 3939), is leased from Avolon and is expected to fly to Perth (PER) from Singapore Seletar Airport (XSP) today after flying there from Hyderabad (HYD) on the weekend.

Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) records show that MinRes Air Flight Operations Pty Ltd, located at Perth Airport (PER), is now the registered operator of the aircraft.

While CEO Chris Ellison has consistently said he wants Mineral Resources to operate its own aircraft, the same CASA records show that neither MinRes Air Flight Operations Pty Ltd nor any Mineral Resources controlled entity does not hold an air operator’s certificate, indicating that a third-party airline will operate this aircraft.

When Mineral Resources debuted MinRes Air last year, it started with an A319-100 wet-leased from Skytraders. ADS-B flight tracking websites show that Skytraders now operate two jets for MinRes Air, an A319-100 and an A320-200. Both operate to the company’s Ken’s Bore Airport (KYB) from Perth, Melbourne (MEL), and Brisbane (BNE).

More recently, SmartLynx Australia (formerly Skytrans) began operating an A319-100 for MinRes Air, regularly flying from Brisbane to Ken’s Bore, as well as Brisbane to Wodgina (QBW). It is still unclear who Mineral Resources will contract to operate VH-8LI. However, the company has previously registered itself as the operator of an aircraft before transferring that status to another entity, in that case, Skytraders.

In the 12 months to June 30, 2025, MinRes Air operated over 900 flights carrying over 57,000 company workers. Ellison says running an in-house airline is cheaper and more flexible than relying on external charter operators.

Ellison has also consistently said he wants to operate his own aircraft and has recruited flight crews and ground employees to support this. When announcing MinRes Air last year, he said wet-leased aircraft were a stop-gap arrangement.

"We'll end up owning about four A319s by the end of this year (2024)," he then told shareholders. Mineral Resources did not achieve this target. At a more recent annual general meeting and investor’s call, held in late August 2025, the company outlined no growth plans for MinRes Air.

Meanwhile, VH-8LI has an interesting history. It was delivered to Jazeera Airways in 2009 on lease from Deucalion Aviation (switching over to Avolon in 2015). In September 2024, its right-side engine swallowed a bird during take off at Kuwait Airport (KWI), causing the engine to fail. However, the aircraft safely returned to the airport and landed, but the incident put the aircraft out-of-service for a month.

In March 2026, Jazeera Airways retired the plane, and it ferried to Hyderabad (HYD) where it remained until October 5, when it flew to Singapore Seletar. While at Hyderabad, the aircraft was re-painted.

VH-8LI is due to land at Perth Airport around 18.00 local time on October 6.

Photo: MinRes Air