Bloke owned EW and was determined not to be swallowed by Ansett.
Old mate sold Airline to another dude with iron clad guarantee.
A week later (maybe 10 days later), EW on sold to Ansett.
Middle Man makes about 100K. Big scam, and they got away with it?
Ansett absorbs EW and 3 yrs later, gone altogether, which was the plan when they bought it in the first place.
Eastwest was absolutely loved by its staff and customers. But its shareholders and management were very old school and because their main routes in NSW were a cash cow they did not need to adapt with times.
Most of their aircraft were owned outright as were a lot of their properties.
Until ex-Ansett Bryan Grey worked out their share price was way below the value of just their aircraft.
It is my understanding that Grey managed to convince one of EW's founding shareholders Pat Carter (safari suit, pith helmet, handle mustache, Rolls Royce to paint a picture), to sell his shares at a premium to the listed price, he would protect and expand the local workforce, and he would not sell to Ansett or TAA.
Once Carter was on board the other shareholders were convinced and Grey got the company in about '82.
Grey moved quickly to expand the business. He also got the staff excited, he went out of his way to engage, new uniforms, new livery, new image and the promise of shiny new jets.
Most of the owned F27s were sold to Fokker, and replaced with brand new F27-500s, plus initially 4 new F28-4000s, all leased. He quickly expanded new routes like Rockhampton, Devonport, Hobart etc.
Plus circumvented the "two airline policy" by flying between SYD and MEL via ABX and SYD and BNE via NTL or OOL.
The cash he got from the sale of the old F27s was used to pay back the loan he got from the Nauru Phosphate Trust.
Within a year there was talk about buying 737-300s and the place was buzzing. (I don't ever recall hearing talking of F100s).
But it was hemorrhaging cash.
So after about 15 months he was bailed out by Rick Stowe who at the time was expanding his Skywest business.
From what I know Grey genuinely had a vision to build EW into a contender to Ansett and TAA.
Likewise Rick Stowe I believe shared a similar vision and there was talk of merging EW with SW. After Stowe bought EW they kept up the expansion with more F28s.
By this time EW was becoming a real potential threat to Ansett, plus it offered Ansett new growth opportunities, and 3 1/2 years later Stowe did the bail out of the century and sold to Ansett (albeit through an intermediary) for a huge profit.
Under Ables the focus shifted from being a premium regional airline to being a leisure airline. The airline was again rebranded (who can forget the "hamburger logo") and re-equipped with the BAe-146s. The F28-4000s were absorbed into Ansett's operations (I think replacing F28-1000s) and the F27s were sold off.
I think the idea for the leisure airline was the forerunner to the LCCs, but the 146s with their high running costs were the wrong aircraft for that model. It is interesting that a few people from that era ended up in Jetstar.
I don't believe the 89 pilot strike was the catalyst for the shut down, that came a few years later, but it certainly did not help.
After the pilot strike though Ansett really started rationalising the business and integrated EW into Ansett, until it disappeared altogether.
It was all very sad, like Ansett staff 8 years later, many very good people lost the company and jobs they loved.