page_title: Pearl Aviation
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Pearl Aviation / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Pearl Aviation (VH-FIY) Beechcraft B300 Super King Air 350, on contract for Airservices Australia Flight Inspection Service, taxiing at Wagga Wagga Airport.
context_page_description: Pearl Aviation is an Australian aviation company that operates charter and medical evacuation flights, as well as navigational aid flight inspection services, flight centres and ground handling. It is part of the Paspaley Group. Its main base and flight centre is Darwin International Airport, with other bases at Brisbane Airport, Cairns Airport, Perth Airport and Essendon Airport in Melbourne.
context_section_description: The airline was formed and started operations in 1964 as Skywest Aviation, which acquired East-West Airlines in 1984 and was itself acquired by Ansett Airlines in 1987. The company was divided into airline and non-airline operations and the non-airline operations were purchased in 1996 by Paspaley Pearling (which by that time had been operating aircraft to its pearl farms for over ten years) and renamed. One of the divisions of East-West that was purchased was an operation at Sydney Airport, conducting air ambulance flights for the Ambulance Service of New South Wales. In 2004 Pearl Aviation was awarded a ten-year contract to operate four Beechcraft Super King Airs configured as air ambulances for the Northern Territory Aerial Medical Service, after losing a similar Ambulance Service of New South Wales contract to the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia the previous year. In 2010 the Northern Territory Aerial Medical Service terminated the contract with Pearl Aviation. 
  Pearl Aviation is wholly owned by the Paspaley Pearls Group and has 8 employees.
  AeroPearl is a joint venture between Pearl Aviation and Aerodata AG of Germany, based at Brisbane Airport. It operates under contract to Airservices Australia; it uses two Beechcraft Super King Airs to check the network of Australian civil aviation navaids, and has also performed similar work in various Asian countries.
caption: Super King Air 350 VH-FIY
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