Ansett - The Collapse
Ansett - The Collapse byGeoff Easedown and Peter Wilms[/B]
The book gives a potted history of Ansett and reveals the background leading to the airline’s demise under Air New Zealand’s inept management in September 2001.
Prior to that, however, it was probably damaged beyond repair under TNT. In particular Sir Peter Abeles’ penchant for visiting Air Shows and ordering aircraft without consulting the board resulting in the expensive mismatched fleet in the later years. Over staffed, overpaid, and over geared, it was stumbling towards its inevitable crisis when Air New Zealand without due diligence bought it for far more than it was really worth. The Kiwis paying over $700 million for what News Ltd were willing to sell to SIA for $200 million a year earlier
The administration is covered in detail from the perspective of the two Marks and reveals the extraordinary efforts taken to endeavour to revive the corpse. The TESNA bid with all the intrigue by Fox and Lew is outlined at length but unfortunately never reaches a conclusion as to why they baulked at the final hurdle.
Were they only after the non airline assets, in particular the terminals, potentially worth more than the airline itself but realised late in the day they were not tradable items on their own or did unknown financial backers get cold feet at the last moment?
It’s a good read and tells the story in an unbiased and chronological fashion that dispels much of the hype and postulations that were floating around at the time, not least on this forum.