Skytrans

Is Skytrans safe?

Yes, on its record. Skytrans, a regional airline from Cairns, has flown since 1990 with no accident on record, and it works under CASA and the ATSB, a regulator and an investigator that publish more than most. We score it 78, level with Rex and well below Qantas. The two things that pull it down are the age of its aircraft and the places it flies to.

Confidence is low. The ATSB's own database would not load for us, so our list of Skytrans incidents comes from trade press and may be incomplete.

What kind of airline is Skytrans?

Skytrans is a small airline that has changed hands several times. It flew scheduled services to Cape York and the Torres Strait for 25 years, stopped in early 2015, and was revived months later when the businessman Peter Collings and the rugby league player Johnathan Thurston bought it. In 2024 Avia Solutions Group, a large European company that hires out aircraft with crews to other airlines, bought it to gain an Australian air operator's certificate.

Today it does three kinds of flying. It runs scheduled flights from Cairns to Bamaga and Horn Island at the tip of Queensland, and from Sydney to Lord Howe Island, twice a day, a route it took over from Qantas in 2025. It flies mine workers on contract, such as Rockhampton to the Carmichael coal mine. And it hires out aircraft with crews: in July 2026 its A319 flew for Solomon Airlines between Honiara and Brisbane while one of that airline's A320s was repaired. On all of these, Skytrans' certificate and pilots fly you.

The airline flew as SmartLynx Australia from July 2025, then went back to its old name in February 2026 after SmartLynx Latvia, a sister airline the group had sold, collapsed. Nothing changed but the paint.

An old fleet

This is where Skytrans scores worst. In October 2026 it flew about eight aircraft: three Dash 8-100s, two Dash 8-200s, two Dash 8-300s and one Airbus A319. The Dash 8-100 is the first version of the type, built from the mid-1980s; two of Skytrans' three are more than 40 years old. In July 2026 it retired VH-QQB, at 42.5 years the oldest Dash 8 still flying anywhere, which De Havilland then bought for its heritage collection. The A319, built around 2002, is the only jet left after a second was handed back in April 2026.

Old aircraft can fly safely for decades if they are maintained to the rules, and Australian rules are strict. But they need more maintenance, spend more time out of service and lack the cockpit technology of current designs such as the Dash 8-400 or the ATR 72-600. We score the fleet at 42, a little below Rex and its Saab 340s.

Incidents and the Townsville near miss

On 1 October 2026 a Skytrans Dash 8-100 was cleared for a visual approach to Townsville. A light training aircraft flying outside controlled airspace had been told to look for it and follow it in, but its pilot did not see the Dash 8 until they were about 1.1 km apart, at the same height and converging. The gap closed to about 500 metres before the Dash 8's collision-avoidance system sounded and the crew descended steeply. The ATSB calls it a serious incident and near collision and is investigating; its early information is that the Skytrans crew responded as they should.

The other events we found are old. In 2014 a Skytrans Dash 8 taxied onto the runway at Toowoomba just as a Cessna was landing; both braked hard and no one was hurt. That falls outside our ten-year window. We score incidents at 75, not higher, because we could not check the ATSB's full record.

Where Skytrans flies

Lord Howe Island sits 600 km off the coast with a runway so short that, in the Qantas fleet, only the Dash 8-200 could use it. Bamaga and Horn Island are remote strips at the end of Cape York, in the monsoon belt, with storms and cyclones from about December to April. Mine strips in central Queensland and Western Australia have few facilities. This is demanding flying, and we score the environment at 66.

Before you fly

• Expect weight limits. On Lord Howe and Cape York flights, the small turboprops carry strict baggage limits; check them before you pack, since bags can be left behind on a full flight.
• Allow a spare day for Lord Howe. Strong winds over the island's short runway can delay or cancel flights, and there is no other way off except by sea.
• Check who flies a wet-leased flight. If a Solomon Airlines or charter booking shows Skytrans, this score applies, not the airline on your ticket.

How we scored it

The accident record (90) and oversight (88) are strong: no accident on record under one of the world's most transparent safety systems. The fleet (42) is the weakest factor, with Dash 8s from the 1980s, and the environment (66) reflects short remote runways. Incidents (75) carry the October 2026 Townsville near miss and a thin public record.