Fri "Herald Sun"
Ansett sale to go down to wire
By IAN ROYALL, aviation reporter. .22feb02
THE $453 million sale of Ansett will go down to the wire after a further court delay yesterday.
. .The administrators were due to present the final sale documents to the Federal Court this morning, but the hearing has been moved to Monday afternoon. . .It now seems likely the handover to the Tesna consortium of Lindsay Fox and Solomon Lew will not occur until close to the Thursday deadline.
A statement from the administrators, Mark Mentha and Mark Korda of Andersen, blamed third parties for the delay to the sale process.
It is believed final documentation on terminal and plane leases were still being worked on.
Industry regulator, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, also needs at least four days' notice to complete the transfer of the air operator's certificate to Tesna.
Last night, CASA had not yet been notified of the intended changeover.
The latest developments come as Qantas boss Geoff Dixon predicted the return to three full domestic airlines would herald an airfares bloodbath.
Mr Dixon said the domestic market was down by 10 per cent from this time last year.
"So there is plenty of room for someone to come in and drop the fares and cause the inevitable bloodbath," he said.