Buster
Was there much warning on the inside? Oh yeah! A client of mine who is a senior "blue helmet" working in up country Pakistan at the time was advised 2 weeks prior to the AN collapse that any bookings held needed to be moved to other carriers.
The date was mentioned in the release.
Our Government knew, otherwise how did the word get to outpost in the Sub Continent?
The word was out in the travel industry, but without validation but what my client had was documented by an organisation who knew what was going on.
One must assume this came from reliable Government sources.
As I have said before, the whole thing was orchestrated by SQ who, with their 2 members on the NZ board conspired to collapse Ansett.
Logical really, as that way they could ride in on white horses and rescue the flailing Airline they knew NZ (Or TE - love that reference ) could in their current state not organise a **** fight in a sewerage farm and would buy said farm.
There were 2 ways to take over Ansett. The 1st being to buy it as was and take over all staff and assets but then have to remove and replace the top 3-4 levels of management keeping the viable but Abeles stripped beast alive at great cost. This would have cost a fortune as those canned would have cost multi millions to make redundant.
Logical thoughts were to put NZ via the board implants in charge as they had no hope to keep it running. If it all went pear shaped, no mud thrown at the Merlion at all - NZ cops the rubbish. Face saved - slink away and deny everything. Collapse - lose the staff at no cost - buy remains and start afresh leaving staff to fight previous alleged management for their entitlements.
Aquisition on AN was very important for SQ as they held the much coveted trans Pacific licences SQ still covet, plus an important domestic feeder network.
This may have all worked and probably would have.
Small problem was a group of potential Western Sydney residents flying aeroplanes into stationary objects threw the airline industry into a severe stall and SQ cut their losses and went away. I can't help but think Tiger was a weak attempt at a retry.
One also wonders if a certain trucking groups alleged attempt with the draw out until others ran out of funding for rebirthing Ansett was not a cynical attempt to make sure nobody else got hold of it and made it viable to leave a gap in the industry to be crept into later.
If we knew it all we would not sleep nights.
Be well and keep the culture good people.
EWL