He got a bit of that practicing fooling staff when he (Strategic) purchased the Ozjet AOC by the Deed of Arrangement. Back then he only fooled the staff out of around $400,000 in entitlements.
As they say, leopards don't change their spots.
All the best to the guys and girls who's jobs are gone. But you will most likely move onto much better things.
So... Does anyone know of a travel insurer that DOES provide insolvency cover.
I'm off to the USA/China on Sunday, and checking my Travel Insurance (a big company, one I used to work for...) and whadda ya know, it doesn't cover insolvency.
I rang them and they cheerfully told me "No, we don't sell such cover, the risk is too high." And "no" they couldn't tell me who does offer such cover...
I have heard that there are one or two insurers which still offer this ( which really surprises me) , though off the top of my head I couldn't give you a name.
The reason I am surprised that anyone still offers it is that most travel insurers re-wrote their policies to exclude financial collapse in the wake of the 11 September attacks as a large number of airlines went bung in quick succession, so it is not as if it is a recent development.
The risks were just too great to keep offering that sort of cover and given the current state of the industry I can't see most insurers bringing it back any time soon... unless of course people are prepared to trade the extra cover for significant additional premiums.
Good luck... and if you find a company which offers it please post... I would be very interested to know ( and I am sure that a lot of others would be too) .
I can't be sure whether this is effectively the same policy "rebadged" by three providers.
Each of these policies includes an "exclusion list" of airlines they won't cover. Interestingly, there are some very big players on there: and of interest (to me) is that two airlines whose initials are "AA" are not covered.
One is of course the subject of this thread. But the other came as a surprise to me!
This is interesting. While mates were leaving good jobs to join AA it looks like AA new that they were desperate for money. Should this have been shared with the new troops to help them make a better choice before leaving good jobs?
Also, it looks like they were desperate for cash but still spent a motsa on the well reported party in Honolulu. This all smells very ugly to me.
This is interesting. While mates were leaving good jobs to join AA it looks like AA new that they were desperate for money. Should this have been shared with the new troops to help them make a better choice before leaving good jobs?
Also, it looks like they were desperate for cash but still spent a motsa on the well reported party in Honolulu. This all smells very ugly to me.
Ugly is just the start of it. I warned people on this very forum that were after A320 jobs to take Jetstar or even Tiger over Strategic. There is one very simple rule - do NOT work for a private company wherever possible. Private operators do NOT have to do the same financial reporting as public companies and as such can hide behind false walls of ego and bravado. If anybody had spent the money and had a full financial credit report done on Strategic they could have seen it was doomed to fail. When you work for a company it is the same as lending them your own money - you should check out their financial status up front.
Some people just don't listen, there were plenty of us on here saying that the move to 'air australia' was a crazy move. You need very, very, very deep pockets to move into such a saturated market and survive. I feel really sorry for the guys and girls who got sucked into this mess and are now out of work.
Some people just don't listen, there were plenty of us on here saying that the move to 'air australia' was a crazy move.
...and for your efforts you got called mean, nasty and a troublemaker by quite a few posters. Wanting something to fail and observing that it looks like it will fail are two different things.
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I feel really sorry for the guys and girls who got sucked into this mess and are now out of work.
Same. I dealt with a few of them and they all seemed to have a lot of drive and enthusiasm for the venture. It's a shame the company appears to have used them and treated them like mushrooms.
Were most of the AA flightdeck crew already endorsed on type when they joined or have a few people who signed up to a bond now ended up as free agents?
BTW I'm not looking to play down the suffering of employees done wrong.
A few ex Ansett drivers who had been around overseas for a number of years and saw it as a chance to get back home. At least they have some expat experience and possibly a useful licence or two to help in the job hunt.
Strategic Airlines, a charter carrier contracted to fly more than 120,000 UK holidaymakers from Gatwick and Manchester this summer, is 49% owned by a company now in administration in Australia.
However, Luxembourg-registered Strategic Airlines SA confirmed it is separately controlled by its European management team and investors and unaffected by the failure of Air Australia on February 17.
Strategic Airlines commercial director Neil Huston told Travel Weekly: “The failure in Australia will not impact our continued operations. All our funding is generated by our own flying programme.”
Creditors of defunct airline Air Australia have been warned not to expect to recoup much money, if anything at all, after it was revealed the company had just $440,000 in the bank on the night it went into voluntary administration - compared to debts of between $80 million and $90 million. During a one-hour meeting in Brisbane this morning, about 70 creditors, mostly employees of the failed low-cost airline, were told Air Australia's losses over the past 18 months totalled $65 million. Mark Korda, from administrators KordaMentha, warned creditors the sale of Air Australia group assets was not expected to generate a large return. Advertisement: Story continues below Between $5 million and $6 million, held in security deposits for plane leases, had already been taken by those parties involved, he said. He said creditors were looking at figures in the "hundreds of thousands" not the "tens of millions" for any asset sales, with any money recovered going straight to employee super payments. ANZ Bank was listed as the major creditor and Mr Korda estimated its losses to be more than $20 million. In describing Air Australia's losses as "horrendous" Mr Korda said Air Australia had been using advanced ticket sale money to cover the losses. Approximately $65 million in tickets for future flights had been sold when the company ceased flying on February 17, stranding 4000 passengers. Mr Korda said the losses appeared to have begun in 2010, when the company, then known as Strategic, lost its defence contract and instead made the decision to become a low-cost airline. He said the company had been predicted to turn a small profit from March, but the losses in the months beforehand had crippled the business. Mr Korda said Air Australia records had revealed employee super, mandated by law, had not yet been paid for the December quarter, or January. Company director Michael James did not front the creditors meeting, however, Mr Korda said he believed him to still be in the country. Mr Korda said Mr James had been co-operative with his staff and said it had been his prerogative as to whether he attended or not.
"I'm sure he is under a considerable amount of stress," he said. Employees can expect to recoup $5 million of the $8 million owed them, through the federal government's Geers scheme, a program established to ensure part of employees entitlements are paid in the event of a company collapse. However, Geers payments are capped at a salary of $118,000, meaning higher paid workers miss out on entitlements. Mr Korda said an engineering company that traded under the Air Australia group umbrella had received attention from "four interested parties" but he could not discuss an anticipated sale price.
Cripes! What is happening to the fleet? There has beeen a bit of movement at the station over the last couple of days by Strategic/AA liveried aircraft. Do the owners have to ferry them back to their bases?
Wanting something to fail and observing that it looks like it will fail are two different things. 
