Defence Contract
 

Thanks - so HiFly is a Portugese AOC holder right?

I'm not a Strategic defender. I don't really know too much about them; but how is it that the Government gives a contract to transport Australian Defence Force personnel to a foreign AOC holder? :hmm:

I know a couple of their Skippers - they'll be in a difficult space. Getting too long in the tooth to do a major move OS again.

refueller in phuket last night wanted the bill paid up front. company couldn't pay.
another mate of mine unemployed.

Because it was made abuntantly clear in the tender that the primary criteria for selection was "value for money for the Australian taxpayer".

You could argue it either way, as it has been in the past many times in the past however the value for money argument was what was used by ADF to award the tender to who they did.

Strategic started the Defense contract by using a 330 on a Portugese registered aircraft. The Defense contract should be only open to tender to existing airlines with an Australian AOC.There is plenty of competition with Skywest, Alliance, Qantas, Virgin etc.Reminds me of the Coastwatch debacle in the 80s.

GONE
 

Anouncement 01.30 mentha and :{corda took over no money what happens now ? Who could be a buyer aos must be worth something ,aircraft not owned?

Damned shame - and brought down by an Insurance Company 10's of thousands of miles away holding back on paying out millions from an event last year.

I notice Mr Korda has bobbed up again amongst the administrators.

Looks like a looong wait for entitlements yet again:(

We had 14 passengers affected with 2 of them in the checkin line in Brisbane. They are rolling for the same fare on JQ and refusing the credit card charge on the VC flights. Decent move by AJ at short notice. Good for JQ PR as well and a top up of available seats for nothing.

Even top management (not from the Townsville refueller I know but reliable) didn't see this coming and are in shock.

Hope all the guys and girls find employment ASAP.

All the passengers I had on VC really enjoyed the experience.

Best all

EWL

EWL, come on, blind freddie could see this coming.

Lets face it, they had just sold everything quickly then everyone would of been out of pocket a lot more than by doing what they did.

It was a possible Phalanger, however the 5.5M hole left by the HKT breakdown last year and the failure of the Insurance company to cough left a cash flow conundrum that was the source of many of the rumours.

It seemed that an "attack under the cover of darkness" approach was taken with receivers hitting last night in HKT and early today in BNE and elsewhere.

Sad

Best

EWL

EWL, What was the 5.5mill bill for ?

ABC in Perth reporting approx 4,000 pax either left 'high & dry' at various places around, & have been advised to make altn arrangements with another carrier, or,
those who were about to board (may) have 'done their $$'s.

Unable to afford the fuel so its reported......

FIFO ops in Perth also affected.

:{

Psgr reaccom and associated costs Ejector.

Sounds like there wasn't a FIM reaccom arrangement in place and they copped full tote odds rather than uplift at face value.

Regards

EWL

To (re)launch in November, and go bust only three months later, I just wonder how solvent they were all along. Were they trading whilst insolvent? If so, it would be a serious breach of the Corporations Act and the Directors would be in the firing line. Not much comfort though for their employees and customers.

This'd be the same government that is subsidising another foreign carrier to soon commence mainland - NLK ops. That, too, should have gone to an Aussie AOC holder.

Now, back to the thread ................

Surely the company must have seen this coming, if only a week or so ago. Don't they check their bank accounts occasionally? :confused:

Another action repeat with a whole bunch of people left unemployed and a whole bunch of people owed money. :ugh:It's like that Irish song with the chorus 'Again and again and again and again.':mad:

Speaking of Irish, decent move by Joyce/Qantas, IMO.

The next time some big shot entrepeneurial type blasts onto the scene in a blaze of media hype telling us all how he's going to run a passenger airline to the islands and pull on the big boys, can they get laughed out of town? Please? Do we have to keep seeing this endless cycle where people end up out of work and owed money, not to mention stranded in foreign ports? It's not just the big airports, fuel companies and ASA who lose out when this happens, but all the little guys who supply catering, ground handling, seat mending and the like. :sad:

All the best to yet another poor swag of ex employees, I hope you can all find work soon.

Yes, when these people set up their next venture the question to ask will be..."Hey were you the guys who ran Ozjet, Strategic, Air Australia or was it Sky Air World?"

Used car salesmen with jets.

You hit the nail right on the head. I cant mention names but its been a shady operation. They were in a desperate situation months ago and simply ran out of money and then lied through their teeth all the way. I am sorry for the great employees but when will people realise that these sort of pipe dream airline operations never work

And Heavylift, too. Their 737F must be practically rusted to the pavement by now.
Gold! :ok:

I was of the opinion that CASA would not let an AOC holder keep same (& certainly not issue one) if they where not financially able to do so.....thoughts anyone?
It's becoming more obvious that Australia can't support too many Airlines. Sure we have the land mass (Sim to mainland States) but we don't have the population & therefore the jobs with dues taxes & therefore the infrastructure etc & our economy isn't as good as 'Juliar' has us led to believe ! There's always a multitude of reasons why a Co goes bust some directly attributable directly due poor management (see QF for Eg.) & some not.

Jobs are sliding all over this country, batten down the hatches I say as our current Govt are killing their golden goose.........you & I!

Hoping our aviation colleges can find employment elsewhere & soon:ok:


Wmk2

The jam jar not quite as full as the reliable source had heard rumored??

The rumor is correct. They are bust!

http://www.airaustralia.com/~/media/Files/Air%20Australia%20FAQs.ashx

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/travel/news/budget-airline-air-australia-placed-in-administration/story-fn32891l-1226273367460

Very sad news indeed. If any of you are interested in coming over to Sri Lanka in order to keep flying PM me. I know the terms and conditions at SriLankan are not the best but it might be a good option until you find something else. We are hiring on the A320 / A330 and I can set you guys up with the recruitment people. I will not engage in the usual debate about SriLankan and not reply to any threads on that subject, this an offer from a pilot to his fellow aviators who are unemployed.
Good luck to you all.

Curious to hear from the crews on how it all went down...

Air Australia
 

Unfortunately this is for pilots only.
Try Hong Kong Airlines.
There will be 200 positions available this year, and approx 300 in 2013.
There are no projections beyond that, but there are 10 A380's coming, then A350's and B787's down the track.
I suspect the boeings will go to mainland as it is primarily an Airbus fleet, or is planned to be.
It is the companies policy to promote within, but there are not enough qualified F/O's to fill all the spaces, so in the short term there must be some DEC's.
That is my opinion, but the numbers are real.
There are plenty who bag this company, but they have been proved to be way off the mark.
Sorry about what happened, but perhaps there might be an opportunity for you there.
It is a website application, anyone wishes more information please feel free to pm me.

I hate to say I told you so......
Regardless, a sad day indeed, some good aviators now unemployed. The only person in Australian aviation who curently deserves to be unemployed is Joyce.
Good luck to all, keep your chins up.

And KordaMentha are doing the Administration! :mad::mad::mad:

Good luck to the Air Australia staff...you're gonna need it! :suspect:

When this all washes out it will make SkyAirWorld look like the local milk bar.

100,000 prepaid tickets useless. And not a cent in the bank.

Sad news for all the staff, suppliers and customers. Good luck to everyone.

I really feel for the staff who have lost their jobs.

But what ****s me in situations like this are Administrators and Banks. We all know these blokes will not miss out on a feed,

In cases where the Company Assets are stuck overseas (people and aircraft) plus innocent passengers the companies bankers should just pay the ******* fuel bill get everybody and everything onshore and then let the administrators bleed the company dry.

No hard feelings
 

THRidle, Jackthelad and all of you other intellects who kept telling us that we were ‘full of BS’ well, no hard feelings.

This is a very small industry though and your appalling, mindless, vindictive, self serving Flt Ops management (we know who you are) track record while at AA will be your calling card.

Learn to live with being outside the Fourth Reich and your crimes.

All of the other great crew will have no problem getting a new gig very quickly. Welcome :ok:

Losing a job absolutely sucks , reading today's news of Air Australia and Qantas is bringing back bad memories. It means change but it can sometimes work out ok. It turned out in my case to be the best thing that happened and I wish it happened 10 years earlier.

Good luck

Air Australia is bankrupt
 

Air Australia collapse leaves 4,000 stranded and scrambling for refunds Budget airline serving Asia-Pacific destinations including Hawaii and Thailand in voluntary administration and unable to pay for fuel ...


Air Australia collapse leaves 4,000 stranded and scrambling for refunds | Business | guardian.co.uk

What happened to the other thread?

Does anyone know how / if this will impact Strategic Airlines operating in Europe?

Strategic Europe is all part of the same (dodgy) operation

have a read of this
France Today: France's embarrassment and anger over Strategic Airlines

Strategic Airlines - a charter company banned by France - makes a mockery of the country's civil aviation authority and takes advantage of a lack of European Union-wide regulations.

(screenshot from TF1 news)

In a special report during its prime time news on Monday, French television channel TF1 looked at how a European subsidiary of the Australian-based company Strategic Airlines had managed to flout a ban placed on it by the French civil aviation authority last September.

The charter airline simply moved its headquarters to neighbouring Luxembourg, as a "completely separate subsidiary" gained a licence from that country's aviation authority, and continued its flights from French airports to destinations in Greece and Portugal.

Strategic Airlines first gained a licence to fly in Europe in 2009 but its name soon became synonymous, as far as passengers and authorities in France were concerned, with technical problems and delays.

Complaints about waits of up to 30 hours because of technical problems and 'planes described by passengers as "flying coffins" as well as spot-checks carried out French civil aviation authority officials led to its licence being revoked in September 2010.

But just a few weeks later the company was back in business.

It had found a loophole in European Union regulations: there is no single agency within the 27-member state bloc responsible for overseeing airlines.

Perhaps the European Aviation Safety Agency would be the body most able to fulfil that function, but its role is limited as it makes clear on its website.

"The Agency works hand in hand with the national authorities which continue to carry out many operational tasks, such as certification of individual aircraft or licencing of pilots."

In other words each member state is responsible for deciding whether a licence will be issued to an airline and although a blacklist of airlines exists, it only applies to non-European companies.

And, according to Gilles Gompertz the general manager of the airline consulting business Avico, Strategic took full advantage of the inadequacy of EU-wide regulations.

"We closed the the door (to the airline) in September 2010 and one month later we opened the window," he said.

"What cannot be explained is the refusal by the company to correct faults and to return to the market after it has effectively been banned. That's shocking."

While Luxembourg's civil aviation authority is apparently "keeping a close eye" on Strategic's operations, it did little to prevent the airline once again upsetting passengers in December, this time those bound for the island of Madeira.

After a 10-hour wait, they were informed that their 'plane had been cancelled - an incident the airline put down to having been the fault of the tour operator.

No. Completely separate companies.

Possibly it helps when someone involved with the company is ex ADF. :ooh:
Airline's wobbly route meant end of the line was a matter of time
Thanks to Captain Johns for the later link (and yes, the irony is obvious :E)

With regard to refunds on cash fares, the funds sit for a minimum of 2 weeks in IATA (BSP) coffers before being distributed to Airlines.

We had 4 passengers on cash bookings. Yep - cash still works on the rock in the Southern Ocean.

I duly refunded them through the Sabre system.

Don't know if it will work but it did with Ansett on a few and the revenues held by IATA were returned to us. Despite numerous threats 95% of Travel Agents told the admin to go pound wet sand up their butts as we were out 3+ months of flown revenue overides. That equated to 5+ times what was sent back.

Hopefully these refunds work and we can reconnect the clients with their dollars.

Failing that, there is the Travel Compensation Fund who have been scarily silent. Unless they changed the rules after Ansett fell, they should pick up the losses. They did then but have been strangely silent.

If they dont then they are simply another Quango making money from us (we get bitten every year) to employ people for no return.

This particular event is starting to show up a lot of holes in alleged cover and procedure and even for us that have to deal with it on behalf of others, it is a minefield. The smoke, the mirrors - it is taking hours to navigate it on behalf of clients.

Travel Insurance is another thing - they are not commenting (we carry 2 seperate companies to cover the failings of each) and nothing is being stated as Gospel until a claim comes in.

Woe betide those who booked on the web. What was the phone number for the internet???? At least they can can the bookings cost via the card issuer but there are more road blocks there.

Four clients with Island State Credit Union with Mastercards phoned on my instruction, immediately had the charge reversed to be back on the card within 24 hours.

Another client who is overseas at the moment and who is with CBA for his Platinum card rang and was told he had to go into a branch.

CBA in defensive mode perchance? Make it too hard for older folk to bother?

They were stuck with rules and regs when AN went - what have they learned and closed off?

We are not 24 hours in and it is getting scary.

Thank God it's Saturday and if I get one more call from some nuff nuff who can't tell the difference between Jetset and Jetstar I am goiung to reverse check their number, find them and insert garden furniture in them. Slowly - 45 degree angle.

Don't we live in an interesting world?:ugh:

Gloomy at the moment VC people - hjowever the good stuff floats and is picked up easily and quickly. There is a light at the end of the tunnel and it is NOT the3:17 from Bankstown.

Best all

Ewl

Say G'day to Air Australia
 

Unfortunately another one bites the dust.

Airline's wobbly route meant end of the line was a matter of time

Travel Insurance
 

Sky News interviewed a chap at Sydney airport who tried to make a claim on his travel insurance. He was told that the insurance company would not cover tickets purchased after a specified date in mid-December, because the insolvency of the airline was known to be likely at that point in time.

I'd be curious to know who the insurance company was. "Strategic Travel Insurance Pty Ltd" perhaps.