OREANDA-NEWS. Qantas today confirmed it has secured a three year initial term contract for charter services for BHP Billiton Iron Ore's Jimblebar mine, in Newman, Western Australia.

The charter services will be operated by the Qantas Group's wholly owned subsidiary, Network Aviation, on its Fokker-100 aircraft between Perth and Newman from 9 June 2014.

Qantas Domestic Chief Executive Officer, Lyell Strambi said he was delighted that Qantas was successful in securing the Jimblebar mine charter contract.

“The agreement demonstrates Qantas' strength in the fly-in, fly-out business and affirms our strategy of investing in our charter operations through Network Aviation,” said Mr Strambi.

“This shows the flexibility we have to adjust charter capacity according to the market and the needs of our customers, including the ability to target growth opportunities or to make adjustments when demand slows.

“Qantas has a long standing relationship with the BHP Billiton and we look forward to working with the company.”

Qantas purchased Network Aviation in 2010. With 12 single-class 100 seat Fokker F100 aircraft, Network Aviation has the largest fleet of F100 aircraft in Western Australia.

Qantas currently operates over 75 flights between Perth - Newman each week.