flying high, with a helicopter view

800 531 In Good Company | Northern Rivers
air t&g logo

Air T&G
210 Southern Cross Drive, Ballina Byron Gateway Airport

www.airtg.com.au/

Visit Ballina Northern Rivers-01
flying high, with a helicopter view

Northern Rivers is well known for its breathtaking natural beauty, and imagine if your day at the office involved enjoying these views from the air.

This is the sweet reality for Georgie and Tim Latimer of AIR T&G, a helicopter service based at Ballina Airport, that runs everything from tourist tours and fire fighting, to power line surveys and aerial mustering, and also operates a hugely successful flight school.

“You have to pinch yourself sometimes,” Georgie says. “By the time you go from the beaches around Byron Bay and right up to Mount Warning, then south to Evans Head and the rivers inland – it’s all so stunning,” she says.

Georgie and Tim were aerial mustering cattle in WA and the NT when they decided to set up their own business somewhere on the east coast. Northern Rivers was a strategic choice because there was no competition between Coffs Harbour and the Gold Coast.

“It also just happens to be a beautiful and amazing part of the world to live in which makes it worthwhile doing business here,” Georgie says.

“We then picked Ballina because the council were so welcoming, the housing prices were affordable, and we could see that the Ballina Byron Airport was growing,” Georgie says, adding that the region’s growth has been even larger and faster than they expected. The business also enjoyed rapid growth, doubling each year for its first five years from 2006, with even larger growth in the most recent two years. AIR T&G now employs five pilots full-time as well as an office manager, and casual pilots added to the team during the busy fire-fighting season.

In 2007, Georgie and Tim added the helicopter flight school, and this flight-training arm is now the busiest component of their work, making up 70 per cent of the business.

“We ended up being inundated with people wanting to train with us,” Georgie says. “It was really unexpected.” Most of the helicopter pilot trainees travel from outside the region, and enjoy the accommodation included with the training. “They’re mostly country boys and girls who move here specifically to train with us then go out and get jobs in the bush.”

The tourist flights and surveying parts of the business draw interest from closer to home.

“We have so much local support for our services,” Georgie says.

“Whether it’s locals who buy gift certificates for our helicopter flights, or people who use us for photography work, we’ve really enjoyed naturally growing our business with a region that’s growing.”

air t&g ballina helicpoters 002
air t&g ballina helicpoters

Share this story

Read more stories
patches kyogle 001

sewing love for a lifetime

 1232 816 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Patches of Kyogle
Jeannine Smith grew up under her mother’s sewing machine in Western Samoa. “My mother was a professional dressmaker,” says Jeannine…

tripadeal_byron_bay

fastest growing, remains humble and local

 1000 667 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

TripADeal
For TripADeal, the figures speak for themselves: revenue in excess of $100million for 2017; 75,000 travellers sent to various…

stone and wood 001

not just a business, a community partner

 960 761 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Stone & Wood
“That’s like asking parents to name which of their children they prefer,” says Jamie Cook, Stone & Wood co-founder. He has been asked which of the…

spell_designs_byron_bay001

spellbinding growth for a home grown icon

 1000 667 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Spell Designs
The scent, texture and aura of Byron Bay is famous, and well-loved. If that Byron Bay feeling was a fashion brand, it would surely be Spell & The Gypsy Collective….

spar maclean clarence valley

making history, creating culture

 1535 1025 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Spar Maclean
SPAR Maclean’s claim to fame is a doozy. Indeed, it’s something only one supermarket in the whole of Australia can say: that it is the longest…

nicholson fine foods yamba

eclectic food innovator shines

 1030 1030 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Nicholson Fine Foods
The small coastal town of Yamba is home to the one of the world’s best eating prawns, the Eastern King Prawn. It’s also home to the highest…

growing community, growing business

 1600 1066 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

The Farm
It’s a typical Saturday morning at The Farm, on the outskirts of Byron Bay. Families line up for freshly made pastry and coffee. Every table in the…

Mount Warning Tours Tweed

a natural business adventure

 1920 1080 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Mount Warning Tours
Despite only existing for four years, Mount Warning Tours’ short life has been eventful: from purchasing the ex-Murray River ferry Spirit of Wollumbin…

harwood marine clarence

‘can do’ marine

 1920 1182 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Harwood Marine
About half way between Yamba and Maclean is the tiny village of Harwood, which sits on the peaceful banks of the Clarence River with its population…

husk distillers tweed 001

beauty and the bottle

 1280 853 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Husk Distillers
The Husk Distillers story starts in the tropical paradise of the Caribbean. Paul and his wife Mandaley Perkins were on holiday in 2009 and discovered…

simply clean lismore 001

simply better for you

 1600 533 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Simply Clean
It’s probably no surprise that it was a cleaning company that was the most well organised of all the businesses Huw and Becky Jones found for sale…

Northern Co-operative Meat Company

collaboration and cooperative capital

 1600 1066 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Northern Cooperative Meat Company
It comes as little surprise that one of the largest employers on the Northern Rivers is a co-operative, and with Casino being the beef capital of…

cape byron distellery 002

spirit of the rainforest

 960 540 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Cape Byron Distillery
Let’s forget the beaches for a moment, as the true lifeblood of the Northern Rivers landscape is surely its rainforests, some of the most botanically…

Alstonville quality meats image 1

main street royalty reigns

 2000 1333 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Alstonville Quality Meats
There’s a giggle in the undertone of conversation when Ashley and Tina Thomson share their claim to fame as being the multi-award winning Sausage Kings…

bennett construction lismore 003

back to the future with new inspiration

 1920 781 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Bennett Construction
It would be fair to say that Bennett Construction and Ballina High School have come full circle with each other. It sounds like a back to the future…

building a good reputation

 1000 667 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Brett Harley
When the only pub in town burns to the ground, it’s a big responsibility being the one chosen to rebuild it. The success of Uki’s new Mt Warning…

meme productions featured image

world class creatives

 1000 750 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Mememe Productions
The piece of advice that dirtgirlworld creator, Cate McQuillen, likes to share with other creative entrepreneurs in the region tells much about her story…

herb blanchard haulage

in for the long haul

 1024 682 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Herb Blanchard Haulage
If you happen to be in the ‘jacaranda city’ of Grafton or its surrounds and you see a big blue truck out on the roads, the chances are its part of the…

island collective yamba

collectively creative social heaven

 1080 823 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Island Collective
If you are looking for contemporary artist and stylist Fleur Yorston, you’ll most likely find her among fiddle leaf figs and cane furniture, in her Yamba…

cumulus vfx byron 002

effective creatives have all the fun

 1000 750 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Cumulus VFX
They’ve walked the Sydney Harbour Bridge with Hoges. Gone down the garden path with Peter Rabbit. Flown Katie Holmes over…

Start Typing

X