Slow response ruined Ansett resurrection, says Indigo

[Wirraway]

Fri "The Australian"

Slow response ruined Ansett resurrection, says Indigo
January 28, 2005

THE US backers of the attempt to resurrect Ansett as low-cost carrier Tesna pulled out because of frustration over delays in reaching a decision on the plan, one of the investors said yesterday.

Indigo Pacific Partners managing partner Bill Franke was part of the consortium whose decision to pull out of the Lindsay Fox-Solomon Lew plan forced the project to be abandoned.

Mr Franke said the Tesna reorganisation provided an opportunity to launch a lower-cost carrier at a time when Virgin Blue was essentially a five- aircraft operation.

But the plan proved too complicated under the pressure of the bankruptcy.

Issues with airport authorities, governments, unions and aircraft providers also meant decisions could not be as made in the short time available.

"The system wasn't there, the will wasn't there, to get everybody in a room and sort it out," Mr Franke told The Australian in Singapore. "It was the first time that something like that, of any size, had happened in Australia, and I don't think the various constituents were motivated, or were prepared to be motivated, around the solution."

Mr Franke said people were still asking him why the project had failed, despite the fact that during the course of the restructuring, daily messages were sent emphasising that time was short and the airline would be lost if a solution wasn't found. He declined to say whether any particular party proved a major stumbling block.

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[Kornholio]

Big deal. this is not news.....

Everyone has known this since the day LATJ turned the agreement on its head and left the Ansett (Tesna hopeful) refos high and dry.

Try again Wizza........ http://www.smilies.our-local.co.uk/index_files/angryoldman.gif
You can do better.

[Chilli Muscle]

"People were still asking why it failed"

Yeah! it must be a delicate one ducking and weaving around that question years later- poor bugger!:E

[Buster Hyman]

Methinks he was just quicker at smelling a rat than others!:hmm:

[Richard Kranium]

It was because the minister for Qantas John Anderson was behind it all. He and the Howard government wanted Ansett dead and buried as quick as possible to protect Qantas and other vested interests. Journo's from Melbourne reported on 3AW that when Steve Bracks travelled to Singers, the Singaporeans where confused why a state government was pursuing this line of SIA buying Ansett and the federal government was pouring cold water over any proposed deal. Why would Anderson appearing on the morning news program on TV, about 0800 hrs was re-iterating infatically, that Ansett was a dead carase swinging in the wind, and this was on the morning of the collapse of Ansett (14th Sept 2001), so what did he know. I believe that any would be investors read the message loud and clear, the Australian government wanted Ansett shut down and not in any way resurrected, and look out if you tried....I want to know why the government took this line...

[Kornholio]

What the hell does "infatically" mean?

What the hell is a "carase"??

Excuse the ignorance, I'm only a pilot and not expected to have a deep understand of spelling, grammar, diction, syntax, etc......



The statements made in your last sentence are fairly obvious!!! Does your Mummy and Daddy know you play with their computer?

:mad:

Woomera

[The Enema Bandit]

What the hell is syntax? Sound like something I should be paying the government.

[Richard Kranium]

Ahhh...Kornball, get a life, sounds as if you'd be better as an English teacher, infatically is the other version of emphatically, and carase is the other carcase.:yuk:

[Eastwest Loco]

Remember that most strategies would have been set in concrete before the events of 9/11.

If anyone can positively prove that the Fox/Lew bid was not engineered by SQ with a significant payout to the incumbents for delaying the signoff until such time as all other bidders lost interest or had burned up to many dollars pursuing the airline, you can butter me on both sides and call me Barbara. Remember these secret deals would have been locked and loaded long before the tragic 9/11 events that threw air travel into a spiral.

The setup stank of rotten fish from day one and still does.

Best

EWL

[Buster Hyman]

Actually Barbara, I think Fox & Lew were amateur sharks that thought they might make a few quid by sweet talking the administrators & unions to get the deal. Eventually, they might have sold the airline part of it to SQ perhaps & kept the property assets, which is what they always wanted. Problem was that the bigger sharks were on to them in the first place & when they realised it, they ran for the Mummies!:mad:

[Douglas Mcdonnell]

AS the years progress Im finding that I look back more and more fondly on the past. A sad end for a once great entity.

DM

[Sunfish]

You are right about the Feds wanting Ansett dead, only I wouldn't put it quite like that.

Governments get sold BS by industry all the time like: "There is only room for one international carrier in Australia", "There is only room for one shipbuilding operation in Australia", "you cannot economically build aircraft in Australia", "there is only room for two car plants in Australia" and suchlike.

The net effect is that Government stands and watches as certain firms collapse, but will step in immediately on other occasions if votes are involved.

However Ansett was gutted long before it collapsed. The government stood back and did nothing because it suited it to do so.

To put it another way, if QF was in similar straits the Government would haver acted immediately.

While Lew and Fox were opportunistic, my guess is that the airline was past saving, old aircraft, hopeless maintenance system being held together by string and chewing gum.

[alidad]

Don't you lot know a dead parrot when you see one?

http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/8889/python/saynomor.wav

[TheNightOwl]

Buster - I still believe that the original prize for Lew and Fox was the AN terminal at Sydney, the airline could then have been sold/broken up, whatever after it had served its purpose.
It may well be that SQ had an input into the proceedings, with the potential for them in the home market I'd be surprised if their hands were entirely clean in the matter, but I come back to the reason for the final collapse lying squarely at the doors of Fox/Lew, with Lew pulling the pin when the Fed government refused to guarantee seat numbers recompense below a "break-even" figure, coupled with the failure to acquire the terminal rights.

Kind regards,

TheNightOwl.

[Sunfish]

And the Government then quietly gave a collective sigh of relief that their child, Qantas, was now safe, and wondered how and when they would have to deflect the next attack on its priviledged position.