Australia's new regional airline to announce name
From ABC
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Al E Vator guesses it may be known as REGIONAL EXPRESS.
REX. REX Aviation...mmm.
Australia's new regional airline to announce name
The regional airlines, Hazelton and Kendell, have been sold to the Australiawide Consortium at the cost of about $40 million.
After 11 months under administration, a majority of employees can now be certain they have a job.
The CEO of Australiawide, Michael Jones, signed on the dotted line at midday yesterday.
He says a new name for the airline will be announced next Tuesday but his first priority is to reassure staff they are working for a successful airline.
"All the staff who are employed with us today are Australiawide staff and they'll be going forward with us," he said.
"There are no more redundancies to be made, there'll be no more changes, people know what their jobs are and we can now get down to business and focus on doing what we need to do."
More than 100 staff have been made redundant by the sale but ACTU secretary Greg Combet says the unions have substantially maintained conditions for employees.
"We've negotiated industrial agreements that try and ensure that it's a viable proposition, we've helped save 700 jobs of former Ansett employees and it's something we're very pleased to contribute to," he said.
Mr Combet says many of the jobs are in the regional areas of New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia, where employment levels are critical for local economies.
Turning point
The Federal Transport Minister, John Anderson, says the long awaited sale of Kendell and Hazelton airlines is a turning point for regional aviation.
After almost a year of negotiations, the regional carriers have a new owner with Australiawide signing the on-again, off-again deal.
It was due to be finalised on Wednesday night but a hiccup over aircraft leasing arrangements led to a further delay.
Mr Anderson says a slow deal is better than no deal at all.
"I do think that the only way now for regional aviation is up and if we can see a similar level of commitment from some of the state governments that the Commonwealth has now displayed over the last ten months or so that would be very welcome," he said.
SA assistance
The sale of the regional airlines may not have gone ahead if not for last minute assistance from the South Australia Government.
The consortium's Mr Jones says the process may have been further delayed if the South Australian Government had not waived stamp duty costs for about 10 aircraft.
But, he says it is a relief the process is finally complete.
"We started the final wrap up of completion at lunchtime yesterday (Wednesday)and we haven't stopped so in the good Australian vernacular I'm shattered!" he said.
"So I think it will sink in in the next few hours but at the moment it's relief more than anything."
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Hope Mr Jones does a better job running the airline than buying it. Good luck staff!