Singapore Airlines is not confirming or denying a report that it is interested in reviving Ansett.
Channel Nine has reported that Singapore will soon consider a plan to launch a new Ansett using 24 airbus aircraft and employing around 3,000 staff.
A spokesman for Singapore Airlines says Australia is a market of interest for the airline, which operates 70 flights a week into the country.
The spokesman says Singapore is keeping its options open for the Australian market.
From ABC News.
From Singapore: The Business Times. 03.09.02
MELBOURNE - Singapore Airlines (SIA) today dismissed speculation that it was considering a proposal to revive Australia's collapsed Ansett airline.
In the latest in a series of rumours concerning SIA's plans for Australia's domestic aviation market, TV station Channel Nine reported a proposal to revive the failed Ansett brand was set to go before the airline's board.
Sydney Airports Corp spokesman Greg Russell told Nine he believed Singapore was serious in its Australian airline bid.
"We have every reason to believe this is being considered very seriously indeed," he said.
But an SIA spokesman in Singapore told AFP "nothing has changed" since the last time rumours surfaced that the airline was preparing a foray into the Australian domestic market.
The airline dismissed a similar report in July as groundless, although leaving open the option of entering the Australian market at some stage.
"It's just another speculative story," the airline's vice president for public affairs, Rick Clements, said then, adding: "We are not ruling out any possibility of running another airline in the future nor are we ruling it in at this stage."
Channel Nine said SIA consultants in Australia began secretly assembling a proposal for a full domestic competitor to Qantas Airways Ltd about six months ago, with the proposal completed about a week ago.
Please explain why SIA are in Melbourne?
