Ansett Townsville, WHAT THE........

[dash 27]

Ansett returns to the sky
Ian Royall
05may05

THE Ansett name is to fly again – as a regional carrier in north Queensland.







A Townsville businessman has registered the name and hopes to launch passenger and freight services by August.
Terry Byrt has even adapted the old Ansett logo and red, black and white colours used by the airline in the late 1960s.

The new carrier will be formed by merging existing small carriers and the purchase of five 50-seat Fokker Friendships.

Mr Byrt said he was using the Ansett name "because everyone knows what it is".

Mr Byrt, with a background in mining and fishing, has formed a private consortium backed by $20 million funding.

"It's no joke and we haven't treated it like that," he said.

The names Ansett Airways, Ansett Air Freight and Ansett Airways Holdings were registered with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission five weeks ago.

"We've purchased five existing airlines in charter and RPT (regular public transport) operations. Just small ones," Mr Byrt said.

One of the airlines already holds a flying licence for high-density flights, he said.

The contracts would be settled after regulatory approval, Mr Byrt said.

Former Ansett staff had already contacted him with their opinions about the proposal, he said.

"A lot of them are saying, 'Congratulations, it'll be great to see the Ansett name back in the air'.

"Others are a bit more sceptical. We don't propose to be anywhere near the size of Ansett."

Mr Byrt said he hoped the carrier would fly routes to Gladstone, Mackay, Hamilton Island, Townsville, Mt Isa, Cairns, Brisbane and Horn Island in the Torres Strait.

Ansett, founded by Sir Reginald Ansett in 1936, collapsed in September 2001 with huge debts.

The article hints about the acquisitions of smaller regionals with infrastructure................M A C, you know who, or Alliance, or QRA. Who has heard, is involved, or can offer something to the industry regarding this.


The Local Industry would greatly appreciate information.

-27

[NZLeardriver]

Was talked about a couple of months ago here (http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=172930&highlight=Ansett). Didnt seem like anyone had any (useful) information.

[Earl Hadlea]

".........Ansett, founded by Sir Reginald Ansett in 1936, collapsed in September 2001 with huge debts."


Thankyou Air New Zealand.

[bushy]

And also the australian Govt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[DirectAnywhere]

So what was the government supposed to do?

Prop up a failing private company with hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer (your!!) money!?!?

You can take a swipe at the government for a lot of things but to blame them for Ansett's collapse is like blaming them for the drought.

Ansett was the victim of too many years of neglect by its various former owners, from Abeles to ANZ.

[Z Force]

Let Singapore buy the remaining fifty percent and not Air New Zealand.

[MikeKnight]

Can anyone reprise me as to why Air New Zealand isn't allowed to operate internally within Australia?

[bushy]

Are you blokes living in fairyland?? Let's go back a bit, and look at what happened.
Australia had a disguised monopoly, with one govt airline, and another one, called Ansett, which was allowed to exist. The two airlines ran the same aeroplanes, along the same routes, at the same times, and charged the same fares.

1. Australia and N.Z. signed an "Open Skies agreement"
2. There was no available terminal space and slots were about the same in Australia, so ANZ did not get started in Aust.
3. So ANZ bought the very sick Ansett Airlines, and so got the termnal space and slots in Aust.
4. Mick Toller,the head of CASA, in a speech to the national press club, said that CASA must have been doing things right, because an internationl body had asessed that Ansett was the second best (safest?)airline in the world, and Qantas was third. (a Canadian airline was first)
5. ANZ was talkig to Singapore Airlines about a possible deal, and an injection of capital. Ansett had 747's and were operating on international routes, and planning to expand. John Anderson told mick Toller to"be fearless in your dealings with Ansett"
6. casa grounded all of Ansetts 767 fleet "because they were dangerous". Photos of cracks in the aircraft, which had been given to casa were "leaked" to the press and did enormous damage to the airline. Of course they went broke.
7. A knight in shining armour, came to Australia. He did not talk to CASA, but went straight to the PM first, and then set up an airline.
And guess what is happening today.
Singapore Airlines is trying to get to run international flights from Australia, and the Australian Govt are preventing that.

Yea verily, we live in the land of the underarm bowlers.

[nike]

Bushy, one of the better summation's I've read on here.

Earl Hadlea.......come on mate.


Off topic sorry: Are Qantas and SQ looking at a merger?

[bigles]

BUSHY----YOU HAVE SOME OF THE STORY RIGHT.THE FACTS NEED SOME ADDITIONAL INFORMATION.
THE EVENT THAT PRECIPITATED THE PURCHASE BY ANZ WAS THE ATTEMPT BY THE EMPLOYEES TO PURCHASE NEWS CORPS 50% FOR AN ESOP
NEWS CORP WENT TO SIA THEN ANZ THE DOPEY BASTARDS PAID $578M PLUS ANOTHER $113M PAYABLE IN 12 MONTHS.THE EVEN DOPIER BASTARDS WERE THE FIRB IN APPROVING THE DEAL, KNOWING THAT THE DEAL WOULD BANKRUPT ANZ. POST 9/11 THE COMPANY WOULD NORMALLY HAVE BEEN VIABLE UNDER A SCHEME OF ARRANGEMENT,BUT THIS WOULD HAVE ONLY YIELDED ABOUT $150M HOWEVER A LIQUIDATION WOULD NETT DOUBLE THAT AMOUNT.I BELIEVE THE PURCHASE OF THE CRJ,S AND THE DEBACLE OVER THE TAIL CRACKS AND ENGINE PYLONS DESERVES FURTHER SCRUTINY, THE RESULT OF ANY INVESTIGATION WOULD REVEAL THE TRUE ARCHITECT OF THESE DEBACLES.

[Eastwest Loco]

A few things need to be made clearer.

SQ was clearly behind NZ with several members on their board knowing that NZ was so ruptured that it would buy AN without doing due diligence when instructed to by SQ.

The 767 LAME incident was caused by falsification and/or loss of records on what needed to be done and when, and specifically was driven by disenfranchised LAMEs who were not happy with their lot in life. The Airline's problem indeed, but a malicious inside job.

SQ is smelling of roses nowadays, and that is just what the Lion intended. Not to lose face.

Ansett had to be collapsed totally and reborn, or the alternative was to remove the top 3 layers of management. Guess which was cheaper.

This would have all worked fine if a bunch of ragheads had not flown aeroplanes into stationary structures 2 days before the collapse, which incidentally had been advise to United Nations field operatives 2 weeks beforehand.

This is a many headed beast that has driven all of our lives in many unplanned directions.

Hang in there sportsfans. It aint over yet.

If it gets as bad again I am going to load my 20 year old Z car with clothes and fuel and do my own personal Route 66.

Best regards

EWL

[Woomera]

"....THIS WOULD HAVE ONLY YIELDED ABOUT $150M HOWEVER A LIQUIDATION WOULD NETT DOUBLE THAT AMOUNT."

Yes, your prophesy proved so correct.

But not for Air New Zealand! :mad:

[dash 27]

Guys, Guys, Guys, you're missing the point.

I am not talking about the old ansett. Its dead and thats that.

We are talking of a business man in townsville, apparently acquiring 5 small RPT and charter operations, and using F50's to go head to head with Sunnies and the MacPac. Sounds like some tyre kicking, but some serious noise is being made about this in the north. QRA, aka IPA/APNG have a dash with nothing to do with it in TVL. Alli@nce is in cohoots with Skywest, which has F50's and an AOC. So its anyones guess. And what of the MacPac. Infrastructure, routes. Nothin is cheaper than Metro's, especially on the routes they run. I take my hat off to them if it works, but at what cost. I think the next 6 months will be interesting.

The fence I will sit and watch. :sad:

Any more theories to this...............

[international hog driver]

Dash me ol’mate, don’t get splinters in ya bum waiting!

New car, new job, new fence??? Don’t jump!

All’s good over here, cheers to the crew. More later.

Gull
:p :E :E

[Legal_Counsel]

No oner really gives a stuff what happened to Ansett. I am glad they are gone. You only need to read the threads on pprune to see what a bunch of pathetic staff they were. And now they claim some sort of title to some poor bastard's attempt to get recognition by using the Ansett name. How pathetic. :yuk:

What sucks is these people all want us to fell sorry for them when they got good return for their year on demands for high wages and conditions which kept air fares at an all time high. The staff are to blame for Ansett's failures.

[Sunfish]

Legal, yours is a pathetic attempt at winding up the readership. Anyone who has ever worked for Ansett knows what a great organisation it was until it was deliberately run into the ground for political reasons.

[Hempy]

The fact remains that Air New Zealand bled Ansett's profits and loaded their debts, no wonder it went belly up.

[bushy]

Ansett was "tolerated' by our government, and regulator to disguise the monopoly.
When they started to really compete they were shut down.
I wonder what the knight in shining armour was doing while all this was happening.

[BAE146]

Foreign company, employing oz workers. Happens all the time down in Australia.

Problem is, when foreign company cannot trade out of massive debt (inherited because of poor corporate decisions - Abeles, Hawke, board of ANZ etc,.) same company cannot expect Government to bail them out.

Simple really, whatever spin you try and put on it. :E

[jack red]

Not true BAE146 , if the Labour Party had won that election, Kim Beasley would have had Ansett flying again. I know, because I saw this written on his T shirt - "Let's GET ANSETT flying again. VOTE LABOUR! "

Oh, I get it now - that's why Labour didn't get in.

[flugenluft]

Remember the NZ PM Helen Clarke's 737 getting blocked in the gate at Sydney by ground service equipment and then the keys went missing for same equipment.

Truly memorable!

[Eastwest Loco]

Legal

That wind up post is decidedly setting in concrete what most of the general public consider as the place occupied in the mix of things by the legal profession.
Gene pool - shallow end.

May I suggest you open an new site called PCRuNe.

No prize for what the C stands for.

Ansett staff had integrity. Try some.

Should be fun for you and Mr Hand.:}

EWL

[Macrohard]

The new carrier will be formed by merging existing small carriers and the purchase of five 50-seat Fokker Friendships.

We are talking of a business man in townsville, apparently acquiring 5 small RPT and charter operations, and using F50's to go head to head with Sunnies and the MacPac.

So which is it??

F50's and Friendships are completely different.

[bilbert]

Maybe he's worked out that the company would be eligible for the Ansett ticket tax payout by some legislative loophole. You remember the tax? The one put in place to pay out entitlements that no one else is eligible for.

[FNQTech]

Townsville Bulletin article on 1oth August reports 12 50 seat aircraft for Ansett. Also reports that negotiations with a fourth RPT AOC holder were nearing completion and that operator allows the airline to start off with a bigger operation. Not too many high capacity AOC's around North QLD so reduces the guesswork. That is if any of this is not just pie in the sky.

[fixa24]

flugenluft..
was melbourne with helen clarkes 73.....

[Austin Holed]

"The fact remains that Air New Zealand bled Ansett's profits and loaded their debts"

Hempy, please explain further?:confused:

[Legal_Counsel]

Not sure what this guy is doing but I am getting tired of hearing about people "restarting Ansett". The brand has no value from a marketing perspective and this mob are not doing anyone a favour flying it. Time to bury it I think. If I were Mr B' I would put his name on the planes because that has far more meaning in aviation history. :hmm:

[AIRWAY]

I would love to see the Ansett brand coming back to life...

[wine o babe]

Just a question legal... Obviously the Law industry doesn't have enough work to keep you from surfing the Airline site like this.
Maybe you are a wannabe .. and never quite made it!!!
Seems that for someone supposedly "intelligent" as yourself you don't have much else to be doing with your time. Why aren't you surfing the property sites to increase that HUGE portfolio of yours.
Time for you to get a life and stop bagging out a company that you know nothing about.
Me for one LOVED working with AN and the staff there as they certainly had a lot more compassion and diplomacy than you.
As for a place in history ...don't get me started.
Best leave this topic for those that actually know what they are talking about.:ok:

[Legal_Counsel]

Well maybe that's just it, you loved working for Ansett but what part was that? The billboard or the airline?:}