LurkR
In your own words:
[quote]I don't consider myself one of the whingers as I feel that sensitivity towards all the Ansett employees that lost their jobs is more important.<hr></blockquote>
If this is true then actions speak louder than words - give the new Ansett under TESNA a chance. TESNA will succeed and jobs will survive while there are bums in seats.
This is one of the reasons I will continue to fly Ansett at least 50% of the time.
Competition is healthy. I want to have a choice as to who I fly with, just as my friends and family in aviation want to have a choice of employers. I would hate to see the Australian public reliant on a single carrier.
Without competition the sole carrier would dictate exactly what they wanted with regard to fare, route and frequency.
Look at what life was like when we had only one Telco? Telecom dictated to the public and we had to shut up and put up, or not have a telephone. We had one of the most expensive phone services in the world.
The same would happen with aviation. Remember the days when Ansett and TAA used to follow each other around Australia five minutes apart? When the cheapest return fare you could get Brisbane/Perth was close to $1500.00? I do - and I don't want to see it happen again.
It's not just Ansett staff that suffered with the collapse of Ansett - the indirect spinoff has had an enormous impact on all manner of businesses Australia-wide. By getting Ansett up and running and by we, the travelling public, supporting it things will turn around in time.
To me the loss of Frequent Flyer points pales in significance compared to the hardship and uncertainty suffered by those who lost their jobs as a result of the Ansett collapse. I've seen a lot of this first hand amongst my friends.
I hope the new Ansett succeeds where the old one failed. Myself and many of my colleagues will continue our support of Ansett and hope that our small contribution will make a difference.
I will now get off my soapbox and find my hard hat!!
Meanwhile - best of luck to all of you who will be part of the TESNA Ansett - I hope to see you all around for a long time to come!