Haughtney
NZ was nailed to the wall by SQ with the collapse of AN.
They wanted AN, the Australian domestic feeder network and more importantly their access to the trans Pacific ex Australia money pit that AN had rights and access to.
SQ with their 2 members on the NZ board at the time had decided to rescue Ansett and ride in on a white charger and save the day. To just buy Ansett out they realised they would have to cauterise the top 3 layers of management which would have cost a fortune in redundancies and contractual payouts.
Hence the most logical way to get the job done was collapse the compny and then come in and rescue it therefore taking the spoils.
With their plants on the NZ board they knew that NZ at that time couldn't hope to manage a bowel movement much less the Ansett beast which by that time was chasing its tail after having been cash raped by Abels and Murdoch years earlier who sold off all the owned aeroplanes and leased a new fleet, the profits being stripped out of the operation and lost into the TNT/News empires.
The SQ program was right on track but a bunch of camel shaggers flew aeroplanes into structures 24 hours prior to the fold of Ansett. The industry went into meltdown right there and then and the Lion got cold paws.
No exposure = no loss of face. That is precisely why the blind was there in the first place. SQ melted into the delightful oblivion of their blind and I would not be amazed if they actually drove the Linfox push to allegedly resurrect the Airline only to pull out after the resources of the staff policy ran out of funds.
I was at the time running my own Travel Agency and still am but was in close contact with mates in upper positions with many airlines. These are the inside details I have gleaned,
The NZ tragedy was something that hangs heavy over me to this day. I was working at TAA Burnie at the time and we had the wife of the Port of Burnie Authority on the aeroplane. That has sat cold on my heart ever since.
I feel it is time to let this tragic end to a wonderful experience lie at rest. God bless the good crew and let us hope their loss has taught lesson to all.
Best regards
EWL