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Australian detention camps boost Nauru airline

Radio New Zealand International - October 16, 2013

A major beneficiary of the Australian-run asylum seeker camps on Nauru has been the island's carrier, Our Airline, with it trebling in size. Our Airline has gone from flying a single 737 aircraft to three of the Boeing jets.

The chief executive of the Brisbane-based airline, Geof Bowmaker, says the establishment of the camps has had a dramatic impact on its business.

He says there has been a lot of demand to transport people between Australia and Nauru as well as charter work flying asylum seekers between camps within Australia. Mr Bowmaker says the airline has been able to fund the purchase through retained earnings.

"They are not new generation aircraft with the price tags that they have but they are still not an inexpensive commodity, but we have been able to purchase those given the amount of additional work we have attracted because of this focus on Nauru as the offshore processing centre."

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