Skywest, the Australian and South East Asia regional airline, is pleased to announce that BHP Billiton Iron Ore has selected the Company as the preferred vendor to provide air charter services for its new Jimblebar mine located 41km East of Newman in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.

Initial contracted charter services for the Jimblebar mine are planned to commence with twice-daily flights between Perth and Newman once a week, using 100 seat Fokker F100 aircraft. Over the 21 month contract term, Skywest plans to introduce an additional Airbus A320 to the fleet from as early as February 2013. The new services for the Jimblebar Project will be in addition to the existing weekly services Skywest already provides to the Company.

After the initial launch, it is anticipated that services provided by Skywest will increase to include twice daily return flights up to three days a week from early to mid-2013. Increased capacity on peak flights is also anticipated to commence once the Airbus A320 enters service, increasing from 100 seats to 168 seats.

Executive Chairman, Jeff Chatfield said: "We are delighted to have secured this contract with BHP Billiton Iron Ore. This further strengthens our relationship while also further underpinning our scheduled FIFO charter business, which provides an ever growing visible revenue stream.”