By June Ramli
Perth, May 17: As commercial flights across Australia remain plagued by cancellations and delays, a small but growing group of wealthy professionals are opting out altogether – buying high‑end personal aircraft like the Cirrus SR Series G7+ to take control of their own travel.
Instead of wrestling with airline timetables, these owner‑pilots are using their aircraft to fly directly between regional centres, capital cities and even across the Tasman, turning what used to be stressful, multi‑leg journeys into predictable point‑to‑point hops.
Cirrus, the global leader in personal aviation, brought its Discover Cirrus roadshow to Perth today, showcasing how the SR Series G7+, now equipped with Safe Return™ Emergency Autoland, is redefining the “personal aviation” category through innovation and safety.
Held at Aero Jacks, Jandakot Airport, the event featured aircraft walkthroughs, technical briefings and presentations from Cirrus’ Edward Lawler and retired RAAF fighter pilot and Red Bull Air Race World Champion Matt Hall.
The SR22 Turbo GTS variant of the SR Series G7+ on display carries a price tag of around AU$2.1 million, depending on specification.
While Cirrus does not offer finance directly in Australia, the company can connect interested buyers with specialist finance brokers to help structure aircraft loans, in much the same way high‑end vehicles or business assets are financed.
Among the very small pool of Australians already flying the latest‑generation Cirrus is One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, who is one of just three people in the country to own a SR Series G7+ aircraft.
Her SR22 Australis G7+ was gifted to her by mining billionaire Gina Rinehart, a high‑profile example of how personal aircraft are becoming both a status symbol and a serious transport tool for those who can afford them.
Lawler, regional sales director for Cirrus in Australia, told dailystraits.com when met at the Discover Cirrus event at Aero Jacks in Jandakot Airport today that the brand has been embedded in the local market for decades.
“Cirrus has been in Australia now for, oh, trying to think when we came into Australia, probably 25 years.”
The aircraft showcased at Jandakot is part of Cirrus’s new SR Series G7+ – a single‑engine piston design with a propeller, pitched squarely at owner‑pilots who want to tour widely around the country.
“So this is a personal aircraft, it’s a single engine piston aircraft, so it’s got a piston engine with a propeller, and this is our G7+ SR series, so brand new.”
Safety remains one of Cirrus’s biggest selling points.
Every SR Series aircraft comes with a full‑airframe parachute designed to be deployed in serious emergencies, and the latest G7+ models add Safe Return™ Emergency Autoland– technology that allows a passenger to land the aircraft at the push of a button if the pilot becomes incapacitated.
“Yep, it’s got an airframe parachute in it. So, you get into some sort of emergency, you can pull the parachute handle and the parachute comes out the back and brings the aircraft down for a nicer level. The G7+ also introduced Safe Return™ Emergency Autoland, so in the event of a pilot incapacitation, any of the passengers can just put a push a button on the roof and the plane will land itself at an airport.”
Over time, Cirrus has built a substantial fleet in Australia and a far larger one globally.
“So, currently in Australia, through all of our generations, there’s about a bit over 270 aircraft on the register in Australia. Worldwide, Cirrus have produced and sold over 11,000 SR Series aircraft.”
The SR Series G7+ itself is still extremely rare locally.
When asked how many units of the G7+ were in Australia, he replied: “There’s three in the country at the moment, because the G7+ was only introduced last year, so Cirrus constantly innovating, so that’s why we’ve had so many generations of the SR Series, so we’ve had a G1, G2, G3, G5, G6, G7 and now the G7+. Since delivery started in late 2025, the three newest generations of the SR Series are in Australia.”
The Discover Cirrus event also highlighted how buyers are using these aircraft in practice.
Lawler said Cirrus customers are far more diverse than the stereotype of billionaires and political figures might suggest.
“We’ve got a very diverse client base.”
“Really, anyone who has the means and has a love for aviation, and they want to buy their own aircraft. We sell a lot to a lot of different verticals in terms of what people do, you know, farmers, doctors, lawyers, people who own businesses who need to travel, and they want to fly themselves.”
In a typical year, Australia sees around 10 to 15 new Cirrus aircraft sold, with New Zealand remaining a smaller, more second‑hand‑oriented market.
For now, the company’s priority is to grow awareness and interest on this side of the Tasman.
“In previous years in Australia? A normal year, you’d probably see 10 to 15 aircraft sold. New Zealand’s a lot less than that.”
Part of that push involves a strategic shift in how Cirrus sells here.
The company has moved away from a network of independent agents to a direct OEM territory model, with Lawler and his team employed directly by Cirrus.
“I mean, at the moment we’re in a new phase of Cirrus in Australia. So, Cirrus used to sell through sales agents. We had agencies up and down the East Coast, one over in WA last year. Cirrus took the territory OEM direct, so we’re now a Cirrus Direct territory.”
With only three G7+ SR series aircraft currently in Australia – including Pauline Hanson’s – the Discover Cirrus roadshow is about more than making immediate sales.
It is Cirrus’s attempt to normalise the idea of personal aviation, showing that in a continent as vast as Australia, a modern piston aircraft can be both an aspirational luxury and a highly practical way to move.
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