16 June 2025
Aircraft manufacturer GippsAero is back in business, in Australia, making aircraft again. The first new airframe in five years began to be assembled recently.
“A milestone day yesterday for GippsAero and Australian aviation with the recommencement of complete new aircraft manufacture. The rivet was set into the keel of GA8 Airvan Serial number 263,” said the factory.
Production of the GA8 Airvan and its bigger sibling, the GA10, stopped in November 2020 when the then owner, Indian engineering giant Mahindra, scaled back to parts supply only.
One of the two founders of Gippsland Aeronautics (since abbreviated to GippsAero), George Morgan bought the company back in 2023 and has been working since to restart the factory at Latrobe Regional Airport, Gippsland, a region in south-east Australia.
Morgan told Australian Flying, “After a long period of corporate ownership, we were eventually able to buy the company back again.
“It’s been a massive effort and we’ve got 43 employees now and seven apprentices. We’ve generated $5.9 million in revenue through sales of aircraft parts and services. Of that, $2.7 has gone into wages and $3.6 million has gone back into Australian suppliers, and $800,000 to overseas suppliers.
“”One of our biggest goals in GippsAero is to restore the family feeling that we’ve had in the business, so when you buy an Airvan, you don’t just buy an Airvan, you buy into a family. And that’s right through from the people who put the aircraft together, the operators, the customer and everyone involved.”
