TAA Res
No Sops, the vast majority of flights were on the board (or controlled by Melbourne Reservations), and we could tell passengers/travel agents immediately if we could confirm those flight requests. We only had to ring elsewhere when we didn't control those flights. Some of the smaller country services (eg the Qld twin Otters services) were controlled by the country ports. We would ring Brisbane Res who would contact the port controlling the flight we wanted. Brisbane would then phone us to advise if confirmed or not. I say phone but telex was also used. For any other flights eg Connair etc we would ring the nearest TAA office who would contact Connair and again let us know. Seems strange now but back in those days it was quite normal and that is how I believe the good working relationship between TAA res and Ansett res really came into use. As a new boy and one who was fascinated by the amount of third level operators in Australia, I made a point of getting a list of them from (what was then) the DCA. I then wrote to everyone of them to get their latest timetable and be put on their mailing list. I then made up a folder of all those flights and had it with me at work. As time went on, I got more and more calls from both Travel Agents and Ansett asking me who flew from AAA to BBB and who to contact for details. I even registered a Company name of Austavia and spent many, many hours typing out all of the details into one big book and wanted to then add Ansett and subsidiary carriers together with TAA and East West, BPA etc so that I could produce a monthly guide similar to the ABC & OAG guides for International flights. I got details from every single airline except for TAA and Ansett who both told me I couldn't use their information as I'd be breaking copywright laws. To say I was amazed would be an understatement, as Airlines of NSW, Airlines of SA, MMa, East West etc had all freely given me their info. I aske no money from any of the Airlines but I'd hoped to be able to sell my monthly guide to Travel Agents, Business Houses etc. After months and months of typing, collating and hard work, I had to give it all away as without the big 2, the Agents weren't interested. Just as well really as computers were just starting to come in and Agents would then have all the info on the end of a phone call.
Paul