Coulson Aviation Australia has been awarded a 10-year, $400 million contract to provide firefighting services to the NSW Fire Service (NFS).
The contract, announced yesterday, is for Coulson to manage, maintain and operate the entire firefighting fleet, a role it has already performed for the past five years.
"We are extremely pleased to have been chosen as the sole aviation supplier to operate the NSW Rural Fire Service owned fleet of firefighting and emergency services aircraft,” said Wayne Coulson, CEO of Coulson Group.
"Coulson Aviation Australia has been the leading supplier of Large Air Tankers and Very Large Heli-Tankers to the Australian governments for the past decade and it’s an honor to have been selected again, to continue to run RFS’s world-class fleet.”
NFS operates a fleet of 11 aircraft including the 737 Fireliner Large Aerial Tanker (LAT) Marie Bashir, two Cessna Citations, six Bell-412 helicopters, a CH-47 Chinook and a Beechcraft Super King Air.
“The RFS has found a reliable and high-performing partner in Coulson Aviation, and we look forward to working with them as our aerial capability continues to expand,” said Rob Rogers, Commissioner of the RFS.
During the 2022-23 bushfire season, RFS aircraft managed by Coulson Aviation completed over 340 missions and rescued 113 people. The 737 Marie Bashir deployed 41 times, dropping over 600,000 litres of retardant.