Being hooked on aviation at an early age reaped handsome rewards for Hugh Jones, who banked $36 million in late 2017 from the sale of his remaining interest in the publicly listed Airwork Holdings, which was taken over and delisted by its new Chinese owners.
Rather than follow his father’s advice and attend university, 17-year-old Jones virtually jumped the fence from his Whanganui boarding school and landed his first job at Alexander Helicopters. From there he never looked back, founding his own helicopter support business before taking over Airwork in 1984 in a 50/50 partnership with the late Allan Hubbard who he bought out four years later.
Starting out with 15 staff based in Christchurch and Auckland’s Ardmore Airport, Airwork grew from a small aircraft maintenance business into a more diversified aviation company that employs 400 people and owns a fleet of nine Boeing 737 aircraft and 30 helicopters.
Having pocketed $17.5m when Airwork listed in 2013, Jones cashed in again in late 2016 when China’s Zheijang Rifa swooped on the company with a partial takeover offer that saw him net another $120m.
Reflecting on his career, Jones concedes that Airwork had some lucky breaks. “I think timing is important; my timing’s been pretty good throughout my life – being born at the end of the war, growing up in boom time New Zealand and when I got into aviation.”
Married to Pixie and the father of three children, Jones resides in a $12 million home on Auckland’s North Shore and has a sizeable residential, commercial and industrial property portfolio that includes 19ha of land that awaits development near the Clevedon village.