CharlieLimaX-Ray
Actually it was the other way round.
Rick Stowe owned Skywest and then bought East West when Skywest was the biggest GA outfit in the country.
Ables was always interested in East West but the government at the time, ACCC or whatever it was called in the 80's blocked any move for East West to directly sell to Ansett.
However that in itself was a loophole so in August 1987 Stowe sold Skywest and East West to a used car dealer in Perth who the very next day sold both to Ansett and Hawke let it go ahead setting inplace 89.
Ables put his plans down in 1980 just after he bought Ansett in an interview published in "Australian Aviation". Makes intersting reading.