VERY Interesting Article About Ansett Administration.
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VERY Interesting Article About Ansett Administration.
The following is a freely available article that is already published on the Internet, that is how I found it, and I cannot see any harm in posting it here?
I had not seen it before, and I found it to be VERY interesting, although obviously now some of it is dated, as it was written almost 2 months ago.....
(QUOTE)
Unions agree to carve-up of Australian airline
By Terry Cook
29 September 2001
Backed by the trade unions, the administrator of Ansett airlines, accounting firm Arthur Andersen, struck an eleventh-hour deal with the Federal Liberal government on Wednesday that will see five of the airline’s A320 Airbuses resume flying on certain major routes today. Another six jets will be brought into service over the next two weeks.
Under the deal, the government will underwrite $25 million worth of tickets for a period of 12 weeks in case the airline is forced into liquidation. However, the administrator has indemnified the government against risk by guaranteeing that it can recoup any potential losses from the sale of the airline’s assets.
The development was immediately welcomed by Australian Council Of Trade Unions (ACTU) secretary Greg Combet as a “small start that will give Ansett people some hope about their future”.
On the contrary, the deal, which will see only 1,500 of the 16,000 displaced Ansett staff return to work, is not part of a grand plan to resurrect Ansett in its old form or to restore the majority of workers to their jobs. It is primarily aimed at the creation of a scaled-down operation plying some of Ansett’s more profitable domestic routes that can be sold off as an ongoing no-frills budget-price airline.
The move is an essential step in breaking up and selling off the airline’s various assets, allowing the payment of tens of millions of dollars owed to large secured creditors like the more than 30 banks now lined up. Ansett is believed to have liabilities of more than $2 billion.
The burning concern shown by the Howard government for multi-million dollar creditors has not been extended to the thousands of Ansett workers, most of whom have lost their jobs and are owed more than $500 million in accrued entitlements. After days of protests and demonstrations by the workers, the government finally agreed to cover entitlements via a levy on airline tickets, but capped redundancy payments to the equivalent of eight weeks salary, meaning long-serving employees will miss out on millions of dollars. The CEOs of Ansett and its parent company Air New Zealand, who bear central responsibility for the airline’s collapse, either continue to enjoy vast salary packages or have been paid substantial severance packages. Air New Zealand awarded Ansett CEO Gary Toomey and other executives a large “performance bonus” in the airline’s final days, said to be worth millions of dollars.
It is no accident that after weeks of refusing to lift a finger to avert the airline’s collapse, the Howard government has rushed to broker an agreement. Just days ago, the administrator announced it had begun negotiations with at least five parties interested in the fallen carrier’s key domestic routes. Besides ensuring that Ansett’s major investors are quickly reimbursed, the government has its own political and commercial reasons for cobbling together some semblance of an operational airline and getting the Ansett issue off the front pages.
With an election only weeks away, Prime Minister Howard is anxious not to go to the polls with the collapse of a major corporation hanging around his neck, the prospect of continuing demonstrations over job losses and entitlements, and tens of thousands of irate passengers demanding airline seats.
It is now public knowledge that despite claims to the contrary, the government had information in June on Ansett’s dire financial position, but chose to ignore the warnings. Last week, Air New Zealand claimed it had met with Transport Minister John Anderson on June 27 and presented a document stating that Ansett had spent $170 million more than it earned in the 2000-01 financial year and that its revenue had slumped 26 percent.
While Andersen denied knowledge of the June 27 document, Air New Zealand has produced a letter it sent to the Australian government on August 14 in which its acting chairman Dr Jim Farmer warned: “We have provided early access to the group’s financial results to be announced to the markets in three weeks time, including very serious losses of Ansett.”
The crisis surrounding Ansett has impacted on the government’s electoral strategy by undermining its plan to sell off Sydney airport before the election and raise an estimated $4.8 billion. This would have partly funded its budget proposals for business tax cuts and public spending promises. The plan was postponed earlier this week when it became clear that the adverse conditions caused by the Ansett collapse could see more than $1 billion sliced off the airport price. The government now hopes that an operational airline will partly fill the void left by Ansett and create conditions more favorable for the sale. It should come as no surprise that the government’s promise to underwrite ticket sales will expire immediately after the election.
Competitors move in for the carve up
The current bids for Ansett are part of a scramble among various contenders, who, having waited on the sidelines for the airline to collapse, want to take over its more lucrative routes, grab its assets at bargain basement prices and establish a niche in a domestic market where passenger demand still outstrips seat availability.
Those interested reportedly include the Dubai-based carrier Emirates Airline, Singapore Airlines, Germany’s Lufthansa and an Australian consortium headed by transport magnate Lindsay Fox and former secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Bill Kelty.
The bid involving Kelty is particularly pernicious. It speaks volumes about the corporatist trajectory of the unions over the last decade. On September 25 the Australian reported that the Fox-Kelty bid involved the creation of a budget price airline catering for 10 percent of the domestic market, paying wages 20 to 30 percent below those previously paid by Ansett. The bid will be backed by a number of union-based superannuation funds, on which Kelty still serves as a key board member, and is expected to receive the official backing of the ACTU within the next few days.
All competitors—both domestic and oversees—are hoping to use the glut of skilled labour created by the Ansett collapse to set up operations with reduced wages and working conditions. Virgin Blue wants to double its fleet to 18 aircraft and pick up desperate Ansett staff willing to accept the reduced pay levels the airline negotiated with the unions when it set up business in Australia last year. These are about 25 percent lower than the wages previously paid by Ansett.
Virgin has been demonstrably hostile to any move towards the re-entry of a revamped budget-priced Ansett into the arena. The airline’s chief executive Brett Godrey condemned the government-sponsored deal, claiming that government interference would lead to the return of a duopoly.
Qantas, Australia’s largest carrier, has also worked hard to block any chance of Ansett re-emerging, rejecting an earlier attempt by the administrator to arrange for Qantas to lease 10 of Ansett’s Airbus A320s and get them back into service. First, Qantas complained that the administrator’s leasing charges were too high, insisting that the company could obtain aircraft from overseas more cheaply. Then it raised “difficulties” with insurance and indemnity, and “complexities” associated with obtaining warrants from the planes’ owners. In this way, it managed to drag out negotiations, finally withdrawing on the eve of a September 25 deadline, after which the myriad of leasing companies that own 90 percent of Ansett’s fleet were entitled to repossess the aircraft.
It turns out that Qantas has orders for up to 37 new Airbuses, with the first due in just over a year. The Ansett collapse will create a ready supply of pilots and engineering staff experienced in Airbus operations, making it far less expensive than if Qantas had to undertake its own staff selection and training.
The breakup of Ansett is well underway. Ansett subsidiary regional airline Hazelton this week received a combined $6 million loan from the Federal and NSW State governments to keep it operating over the next six months until a buyer can be found. Newcastle-based AirPelican, the most profitable of Ansett’s regional carriers, is operating for the present as a stand-alone company. Ansett subsidiary Traveland was sold off to a Sydney-based consortium last week.
Unions gain from collapse
While thousands of angry Ansett staff and other airline workers have attended rallies and demonstrations at air terminals across the country, winning widespread public sympathy, the unions have refused to mount any industrial and political campaign to defend their jobs.
The unions have worked to block any industrial action by other airline workers in support of their Ansett colleagues, and to divert the workers’ mounting anger into anti-New Zealand tub-thumping. Air New Zealand, Ansett’s parent company, asset-stripped its subsidiary in the months prior to the collapse and then refused to take any responsibility for the workforce when the airline finally failed. Air New Zealand itself could now be placed in the hands of an administrator after the New Zealand Stock Exchange suspended trading in the airline’s shares. This was despite an earlier announcement of a government-backed scheme to inject millions of dollars into the troubled airline. But the anti-New Zealand campaign being conducted by the Australian unions only serves to undermine a unified struggle by airline workers on both sides of the Tasman.
Having confined Ansett workers to limited protests, the unions are being brought forward to assist in the airline’s carve-up. At a packed creditors meeting on September 19, administrator Mark Mentha acknowledged that the unions where central to “sorting out the Ansett mess,” redefining them as “creditor representatives” on the basis that their members were owed millions of dollars in entitlements.
The ACTU welcomed the development as a “first” and a “breakthrough”. This new official status brings the unions off the sidelines and into the centre of organising Ansett’s restructuring, a role they have unsuccessfully sought in previous corporate collapses.
The ACTU worked hard to facilitate the “breakthrough”. On the eve of the creditors’ meeting, the peak union body forced the resignation of the former administrator PricewaterhouseCooper—known to be reluctant to recognise the unions as creditor representatives—by claiming there was a conflict of interest because its sister company was engaged by Air New Zealand to provide financial advice.
Union representatives have taken their place on a committee of creditors set up to assist the administrator dispense with Ansett’s remaining assets. No doubt they played a key role in thrashing out the deal with the Howard government to get the airline’s planes up and running.
On Wednesday ACTU secretary Greg Combet called on the remaining Ansett staff to “hang in there” and be prepared to wait for weeks, and possibly months, without income while the carve-up proceeds. This is designed to place the workers on hold allowing the administrators to pick and choose the staff they require.
Combet announced that the unions would not be seeking redundancy payments. While the administrator was legally bound to honour existing wages and conditions during the limited start-up of Ansett operations, he made clear that over the longer term, the unions would negotiate new terms, including reduced staffing levels, with potential buyers. “We will of course be negotiating improved productivity, flexibility and operational management systems to make sure this thing is viable,” he said. “Obviously, staffing numbers will be on the table as well.”
With these pledges, the ACTU has secured a new niche for itself, working alongside professional administrators, to breakup and asset-strip Ansett and other collapsed companies.
(END QUOTE)
I had not seen it before, and I found it to be VERY interesting, although obviously now some of it is dated, as it was written almost 2 months ago.....
(QUOTE)
Unions agree to carve-up of Australian airline
By Terry Cook
29 September 2001
Backed by the trade unions, the administrator of Ansett airlines, accounting firm Arthur Andersen, struck an eleventh-hour deal with the Federal Liberal government on Wednesday that will see five of the airline’s A320 Airbuses resume flying on certain major routes today. Another six jets will be brought into service over the next two weeks.
Under the deal, the government will underwrite $25 million worth of tickets for a period of 12 weeks in case the airline is forced into liquidation. However, the administrator has indemnified the government against risk by guaranteeing that it can recoup any potential losses from the sale of the airline’s assets.
The development was immediately welcomed by Australian Council Of Trade Unions (ACTU) secretary Greg Combet as a “small start that will give Ansett people some hope about their future”.
On the contrary, the deal, which will see only 1,500 of the 16,000 displaced Ansett staff return to work, is not part of a grand plan to resurrect Ansett in its old form or to restore the majority of workers to their jobs. It is primarily aimed at the creation of a scaled-down operation plying some of Ansett’s more profitable domestic routes that can be sold off as an ongoing no-frills budget-price airline.
The move is an essential step in breaking up and selling off the airline’s various assets, allowing the payment of tens of millions of dollars owed to large secured creditors like the more than 30 banks now lined up. Ansett is believed to have liabilities of more than $2 billion.
The burning concern shown by the Howard government for multi-million dollar creditors has not been extended to the thousands of Ansett workers, most of whom have lost their jobs and are owed more than $500 million in accrued entitlements. After days of protests and demonstrations by the workers, the government finally agreed to cover entitlements via a levy on airline tickets, but capped redundancy payments to the equivalent of eight weeks salary, meaning long-serving employees will miss out on millions of dollars. The CEOs of Ansett and its parent company Air New Zealand, who bear central responsibility for the airline’s collapse, either continue to enjoy vast salary packages or have been paid substantial severance packages. Air New Zealand awarded Ansett CEO Gary Toomey and other executives a large “performance bonus” in the airline’s final days, said to be worth millions of dollars.
It is no accident that after weeks of refusing to lift a finger to avert the airline’s collapse, the Howard government has rushed to broker an agreement. Just days ago, the administrator announced it had begun negotiations with at least five parties interested in the fallen carrier’s key domestic routes. Besides ensuring that Ansett’s major investors are quickly reimbursed, the government has its own political and commercial reasons for cobbling together some semblance of an operational airline and getting the Ansett issue off the front pages.
With an election only weeks away, Prime Minister Howard is anxious not to go to the polls with the collapse of a major corporation hanging around his neck, the prospect of continuing demonstrations over job losses and entitlements, and tens of thousands of irate passengers demanding airline seats.
It is now public knowledge that despite claims to the contrary, the government had information in June on Ansett’s dire financial position, but chose to ignore the warnings. Last week, Air New Zealand claimed it had met with Transport Minister John Anderson on June 27 and presented a document stating that Ansett had spent $170 million more than it earned in the 2000-01 financial year and that its revenue had slumped 26 percent.
While Andersen denied knowledge of the June 27 document, Air New Zealand has produced a letter it sent to the Australian government on August 14 in which its acting chairman Dr Jim Farmer warned: “We have provided early access to the group’s financial results to be announced to the markets in three weeks time, including very serious losses of Ansett.”
The crisis surrounding Ansett has impacted on the government’s electoral strategy by undermining its plan to sell off Sydney airport before the election and raise an estimated $4.8 billion. This would have partly funded its budget proposals for business tax cuts and public spending promises. The plan was postponed earlier this week when it became clear that the adverse conditions caused by the Ansett collapse could see more than $1 billion sliced off the airport price. The government now hopes that an operational airline will partly fill the void left by Ansett and create conditions more favorable for the sale. It should come as no surprise that the government’s promise to underwrite ticket sales will expire immediately after the election.
Competitors move in for the carve up
The current bids for Ansett are part of a scramble among various contenders, who, having waited on the sidelines for the airline to collapse, want to take over its more lucrative routes, grab its assets at bargain basement prices and establish a niche in a domestic market where passenger demand still outstrips seat availability.
Those interested reportedly include the Dubai-based carrier Emirates Airline, Singapore Airlines, Germany’s Lufthansa and an Australian consortium headed by transport magnate Lindsay Fox and former secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Bill Kelty.
The bid involving Kelty is particularly pernicious. It speaks volumes about the corporatist trajectory of the unions over the last decade. On September 25 the Australian reported that the Fox-Kelty bid involved the creation of a budget price airline catering for 10 percent of the domestic market, paying wages 20 to 30 percent below those previously paid by Ansett. The bid will be backed by a number of union-based superannuation funds, on which Kelty still serves as a key board member, and is expected to receive the official backing of the ACTU within the next few days.
All competitors—both domestic and oversees—are hoping to use the glut of skilled labour created by the Ansett collapse to set up operations with reduced wages and working conditions. Virgin Blue wants to double its fleet to 18 aircraft and pick up desperate Ansett staff willing to accept the reduced pay levels the airline negotiated with the unions when it set up business in Australia last year. These are about 25 percent lower than the wages previously paid by Ansett.
Virgin has been demonstrably hostile to any move towards the re-entry of a revamped budget-priced Ansett into the arena. The airline’s chief executive Brett Godrey condemned the government-sponsored deal, claiming that government interference would lead to the return of a duopoly.
Qantas, Australia’s largest carrier, has also worked hard to block any chance of Ansett re-emerging, rejecting an earlier attempt by the administrator to arrange for Qantas to lease 10 of Ansett’s Airbus A320s and get them back into service. First, Qantas complained that the administrator’s leasing charges were too high, insisting that the company could obtain aircraft from overseas more cheaply. Then it raised “difficulties” with insurance and indemnity, and “complexities” associated with obtaining warrants from the planes’ owners. In this way, it managed to drag out negotiations, finally withdrawing on the eve of a September 25 deadline, after which the myriad of leasing companies that own 90 percent of Ansett’s fleet were entitled to repossess the aircraft.
It turns out that Qantas has orders for up to 37 new Airbuses, with the first due in just over a year. The Ansett collapse will create a ready supply of pilots and engineering staff experienced in Airbus operations, making it far less expensive than if Qantas had to undertake its own staff selection and training.
The breakup of Ansett is well underway. Ansett subsidiary regional airline Hazelton this week received a combined $6 million loan from the Federal and NSW State governments to keep it operating over the next six months until a buyer can be found. Newcastle-based AirPelican, the most profitable of Ansett’s regional carriers, is operating for the present as a stand-alone company. Ansett subsidiary Traveland was sold off to a Sydney-based consortium last week.
Unions gain from collapse
While thousands of angry Ansett staff and other airline workers have attended rallies and demonstrations at air terminals across the country, winning widespread public sympathy, the unions have refused to mount any industrial and political campaign to defend their jobs.
The unions have worked to block any industrial action by other airline workers in support of their Ansett colleagues, and to divert the workers’ mounting anger into anti-New Zealand tub-thumping. Air New Zealand, Ansett’s parent company, asset-stripped its subsidiary in the months prior to the collapse and then refused to take any responsibility for the workforce when the airline finally failed. Air New Zealand itself could now be placed in the hands of an administrator after the New Zealand Stock Exchange suspended trading in the airline’s shares. This was despite an earlier announcement of a government-backed scheme to inject millions of dollars into the troubled airline. But the anti-New Zealand campaign being conducted by the Australian unions only serves to undermine a unified struggle by airline workers on both sides of the Tasman.
Having confined Ansett workers to limited protests, the unions are being brought forward to assist in the airline’s carve-up. At a packed creditors meeting on September 19, administrator Mark Mentha acknowledged that the unions where central to “sorting out the Ansett mess,” redefining them as “creditor representatives” on the basis that their members were owed millions of dollars in entitlements.
The ACTU welcomed the development as a “first” and a “breakthrough”. This new official status brings the unions off the sidelines and into the centre of organising Ansett’s restructuring, a role they have unsuccessfully sought in previous corporate collapses.
The ACTU worked hard to facilitate the “breakthrough”. On the eve of the creditors’ meeting, the peak union body forced the resignation of the former administrator PricewaterhouseCooper—known to be reluctant to recognise the unions as creditor representatives—by claiming there was a conflict of interest because its sister company was engaged by Air New Zealand to provide financial advice.
Union representatives have taken their place on a committee of creditors set up to assist the administrator dispense with Ansett’s remaining assets. No doubt they played a key role in thrashing out the deal with the Howard government to get the airline’s planes up and running.
On Wednesday ACTU secretary Greg Combet called on the remaining Ansett staff to “hang in there” and be prepared to wait for weeks, and possibly months, without income while the carve-up proceeds. This is designed to place the workers on hold allowing the administrators to pick and choose the staff they require.
Combet announced that the unions would not be seeking redundancy payments. While the administrator was legally bound to honour existing wages and conditions during the limited start-up of Ansett operations, he made clear that over the longer term, the unions would negotiate new terms, including reduced staffing levels, with potential buyers. “We will of course be negotiating improved productivity, flexibility and operational management systems to make sure this thing is viable,” he said. “Obviously, staffing numbers will be on the table as well.”
With these pledges, the ACTU has secured a new niche for itself, working alongside professional administrators, to breakup and asset-strip Ansett and other collapsed companies.
(END QUOTE)
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Now the administrators (appointed by the ACTU) will not even consider an alternative plan. The ACTU is rubbishing it saying that the Unions will NOT wear it, and now the Labor Premier of Victoria is calling the other proposal "not in the national interest" ...... 
(QUOTE)
Ansett bid 'not in national interest'
From AAP
26nov01
THE late bid for Ansett by the Lang Corporation and Virgin Blue was not in the national interest, Victorian Premier Steve Bracks has said.
His comments came as the Ansett administrators revealed they had knocked back the Lang bid and would sell the airline to Melbourne businessmen Solomon Lew and Lindsay Fox. Mr Bracks, a firm supporter of the sale of the airline to Mr Fox and Mr Lew, said the "alternative proposal" would cost thousands of jobs and see the Ansett name disappear.
"This is not a full-service airline," Mr Bracks said. "This is about 1500 people employed, that's about ... one-quarter of the total employment base that Lindsay Fox and Soloman Lew were offering.
"And worst of all, it gets rid of Ansett
"Ansett would not exist under the proposal, which the Lang Corporation are proposing in conjunction with Virgin.
"It would not be in Australia's interest therefore to have Ansett go under, and the name and the label go.
"And it would not be in the interests of competition."
(END QUOTE)
Hopefully the recently re elected Australian Government will decide what is in the National Interest, NOT the Premier of Victoria or the ACTU.........
(QUOTE)
Ansett bid 'not in national interest'
From AAP
26nov01
THE late bid for Ansett by the Lang Corporation and Virgin Blue was not in the national interest, Victorian Premier Steve Bracks has said.
His comments came as the Ansett administrators revealed they had knocked back the Lang bid and would sell the airline to Melbourne businessmen Solomon Lew and Lindsay Fox. Mr Bracks, a firm supporter of the sale of the airline to Mr Fox and Mr Lew, said the "alternative proposal" would cost thousands of jobs and see the Ansett name disappear.
"This is not a full-service airline," Mr Bracks said. "This is about 1500 people employed, that's about ... one-quarter of the total employment base that Lindsay Fox and Soloman Lew were offering.
"And worst of all, it gets rid of Ansett
"Ansett would not exist under the proposal, which the Lang Corporation are proposing in conjunction with Virgin.
"It would not be in Australia's interest therefore to have Ansett go under, and the name and the label go.
"And it would not be in the interests of competition."
(END QUOTE)
Hopefully the recently re elected Australian Government will decide what is in the National Interest, NOT the Premier of Victoria or the ACTU.........
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LAME,
not as unbiased as usual.Who in AN,as primary creditors,would want the Lang/VB option.
ACTU should be applauded for their efforts re the new administrators,no help from the first lot(or for that matter the governments of AUST & NZ who 3 days after the collapse prevented SQ from buying AN).
It would be nice to be able to have a fair go.
not as unbiased as usual.Who in AN,as primary creditors,would want the Lang/VB option.
ACTU should be applauded for their efforts re the new administrators,no help from the first lot(or for that matter the governments of AUST & NZ who 3 days after the collapse prevented SQ from buying AN).
It would be nice to be able to have a fair go.
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bulldog69,
Did you read the original post fully?
Yes, normally I do NOT make ANY personal comments with these postings, but this really annoys me........
We had an election recently, I and many other Australians, the majority luckily, decided we did NOT want a Labor Government with all their hangers on like the ACTU.
We are still getting Bob Hawke and Paul Keating telling us why we should have voted Labor, and what is wrong with the Country, even though they not only didn't fix our problems, but in fact caused most of them, particualarly in Aviation.....
The ACTU had the original administrators removed and replaced with the current ones, now the ACTU is calling all the shots. The ACTU appointed administrators will not even consider the alternate bid, and now the Victorian Labor Premier is saying the new bid is not in the national interest......
THANKFULLY Labor and their ACTU mates are NOT the Government, and do NOT speak for the majority of Australians.........
I have ABSOLUTELY NO PERSONAL INTEREST in this matter, as I have pointed out before, EXCEPT as a Global Rewards Frequent Flyer Member. However I do mix with a lot of other business people that fly a lot, and from informal discussions, I am afraid to tell you that it would appear that Ansett in its new form is still doomed, because most of their business customers have deserted them forever.......
IMHO the ex Ansett staff would be better off with the Virgin/Lang proposal long term, but that of course would not suit the ACTU.
BEST OF LUCK TO ALL INVOLVED........
Regards,
"lame"
Did you read the original post fully?
Yes, normally I do NOT make ANY personal comments with these postings, but this really annoys me........
We had an election recently, I and many other Australians, the majority luckily, decided we did NOT want a Labor Government with all their hangers on like the ACTU.
We are still getting Bob Hawke and Paul Keating telling us why we should have voted Labor, and what is wrong with the Country, even though they not only didn't fix our problems, but in fact caused most of them, particualarly in Aviation.....
The ACTU had the original administrators removed and replaced with the current ones, now the ACTU is calling all the shots. The ACTU appointed administrators will not even consider the alternate bid, and now the Victorian Labor Premier is saying the new bid is not in the national interest......
THANKFULLY Labor and their ACTU mates are NOT the Government, and do NOT speak for the majority of Australians.........
I have ABSOLUTELY NO PERSONAL INTEREST in this matter, as I have pointed out before, EXCEPT as a Global Rewards Frequent Flyer Member. However I do mix with a lot of other business people that fly a lot, and from informal discussions, I am afraid to tell you that it would appear that Ansett in its new form is still doomed, because most of their business customers have deserted them forever.......
IMHO the ex Ansett staff would be better off with the Virgin/Lang proposal long term, but that of course would not suit the ACTU.
BEST OF LUCK TO ALL INVOLVED........
Regards,
"lame"
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The Lang/Virgin bid is NOT yet dead. There are still a couple of conditions re: government assistance that is attached to the Fox/Lew bid.
Knowing John Anderson's past history, do not be surprised if the Libs maintain their stance of no BAILOUT and the Fox/Lew team may re-consider. Any further delays could result in Lang/Branson being considered.
The creditors are getting very restless as they perceive (and I agree) a union involvement here from the day the original administrators were "relieved" of duty!
Knowing John Anderson's past history, do not be surprised if the Libs maintain their stance of no BAILOUT and the Fox/Lew team may re-consider. Any further delays could result in Lang/Branson being considered.
The creditors are getting very restless as they perceive (and I agree) a union involvement here from the day the original administrators were "relieved" of duty!
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The administrators say that they are 101% sure the F/L bid is going through. The 2 points to be clarified with the government are an equitable sharing of the government's flying business and a method to take Qantas's market share to their stated 65-70%. Neither involve any taxpayer financial inputs into the new business.
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I take it that the majority, if not all, of the people supporting the Fox/Lew bid here are ex Ansett employees? That is good, but PLEASE be careful you are not just going along with what the ACTU, Unions and the ACTU appointed administrators want......
YES the Fox/Lew bid will employ more of you than the Virgin/Lang bid will. However the Fox/Lew Airline has not got a hope in hell of surviving long term so sadly you will be out of work again, and maybe lose more money. Ansett cannot possibly compete with Qantas in the full service area, as I said before I know they have lost most of their high yield business customers who will never return, and they cannot effectively compete with the no frills Virgin?
It does not directly affect me either way, but for YOUR OWN SAKES PLEASE THINK ABOUT IT............
YES the Fox/Lew bid will employ more of you than the Virgin/Lang bid will. However the Fox/Lew Airline has not got a hope in hell of surviving long term so sadly you will be out of work again, and maybe lose more money. Ansett cannot possibly compete with Qantas in the full service area, as I said before I know they have lost most of their high yield business customers who will never return, and they cannot effectively compete with the no frills Virgin?
It does not directly affect me either way, but for YOUR OWN SAKES PLEASE THINK ABOUT IT............
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I think both Virgin Blue and Ansett II will be in delicate positions for the medium term. Qantas can do as they please at the moment and the ACCC doesn't seem real interested at this stage. Both Virgin and Ansett have complained about Qantas's tactics and I can't see Qantas wanting 2 competitors so it will be lights out for one. But which one will fall this time ? AN II will actually be capitalised properly and run by business people rather than the previous band of clowns. Virgin is desperately looking for money and with AN II around, institutional support may be a wee bit hard to find. All makes for an interesting 12 months ........
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Lame,
why so angry?I have used you to save much time & money with the media.I just laughed at your editorial,didn`t want to make you angry though!
For years the peanut farmers & rednecks in QLD under a National Party government were trying to decentralise from the Commonwealth,your vehement faith in Canberra was,well,very un-Queensland like.
Labor is very good for VB,Beattie a great fan even with the prospect of a collapsed tourist industry and many unemployed and well paid Queensland workers.
LAME,some of your statements sweeping,how will AN workers be better off under VB?
Why will business not be attracted to an Australian owned airline,run by entrepeneurs who have had no government help,in a spirit embracing the AN of old?
LAME,very interested in your opinions but not your politics.
why so angry?I have used you to save much time & money with the media.I just laughed at your editorial,didn`t want to make you angry though!
For years the peanut farmers & rednecks in QLD under a National Party government were trying to decentralise from the Commonwealth,your vehement faith in Canberra was,well,very un-Queensland like.
Labor is very good for VB,Beattie a great fan even with the prospect of a collapsed tourist industry and many unemployed and well paid Queensland workers.
LAME,some of your statements sweeping,how will AN workers be better off under VB?
Why will business not be attracted to an Australian owned airline,run by entrepeneurs who have had no government help,in a spirit embracing the AN of old?
LAME,very interested in your opinions but not your politics.
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I am not the least bit angry? 
I have NO time for the ACTU and the Unions involved in this, they are only looking after their own interests, not necessarily the ex AN employees.
I also have NO time for Labor any longer because of what they did to Compass.
It is no skin off my nose what happens, I just feel for all the ex AN employees and worry that they are being persuaded to vote the way the ACTU wants, rather than the best way for themselves.
PLEASE do what you want, all I asked is for your own sakes, THINK ABOUT IT......
[ 26 November 2001: Message edited by: lame ]
I have NO time for the ACTU and the Unions involved in this, they are only looking after their own interests, not necessarily the ex AN employees.
I also have NO time for Labor any longer because of what they did to Compass.
It is no skin off my nose what happens, I just feel for all the ex AN employees and worry that they are being persuaded to vote the way the ACTU wants, rather than the best way for themselves.
PLEASE do what you want, all I asked is for your own sakes, THINK ABOUT IT......
[ 26 November 2001: Message edited by: lame ]
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The F/L bid puts way more capital behind ANII than VB could ever dream of.
Dick is desperate to pull capital out of VB to prop up an ailing VS.
VB's last chance was the Lang bid as it involved liquidating AN (and getting a squiz at the books).
AN already has corporate contracts on the way back and many letters of intent (gee - almost 700 bickies to fly ML-SY return on the rat)
LAME - the staff at AN have absolutely no say as to the final outcome of this bidding process - its not a democracy.
Dick is desperate to pull capital out of VB to prop up an ailing VS.
VB's last chance was the Lang bid as it involved liquidating AN (and getting a squiz at the books).
AN already has corporate contracts on the way back and many letters of intent (gee - almost 700 bickies to fly ML-SY return on the rat)
LAME - the staff at AN have absolutely no say as to the final outcome of this bidding process - its not a democracy.
The reason that Steve Bracks says that "the Virgin-Lang proposal is not in the national interest" is because Virgin is being promoted by Peter Beattie as a Queensland airline whereas Ansett was always claimed by Victorians as their airline. What he really meant to say was that it was not in Victoria's interest!
GB
GB
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oicur12,
They keep saying that the ACTU and the Unions are acting for the ex employees, who are the priority creditors?
That was my point, be careful THEY are not voting for what THEY want, rather than what is best for YOU.....
Going Boeing,
Yes, that would have been correct maybe.
Virgin have a very good advertisement up here about "Queensland Is Our Land".
Best regards,
"lame"
They keep saying that the ACTU and the Unions are acting for the ex employees, who are the priority creditors?
That was my point, be careful THEY are not voting for what THEY want, rather than what is best for YOU.....
Going Boeing,
Yes, that would have been correct maybe.
Virgin have a very good advertisement up here about "Queensland Is Our Land".
Best regards,
"lame"
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Now another disaster to do with the administration......
Traveland was sold by the administrators of Ansett, who accepted some $25M of liabilities to sell it, then that Company sold it again, now it is in trouble again, and the administrators of Ansett still have this $25M liability.......
(QUOTE)
Traveland in strife after botched sale
By Sophie Morris
28nov01
FOR the second time in less than three months, Traveland, a former subsidiary of Ansett, was placed in voluntary administration yesterday, jeopardising 553 jobs and travellers' plans.
It emerged yesterday that Internova MCI, the technology company that bought the travel agency from the Ansett administrators on September 24, sold it two weeks after winning the furious bidding war with several other travel industry players.
Internova company secretary Tony de Govrik said a group of shareholders called the Australasian Investment Company bought the travel agency on October 8 after some of Internova MCI's industry backers withdrew.
The return to administration came as no surprise to the staff, whose past four pay cheques were delayed, prompting the Australian Services Union to take the owners to the Industrial Relations Commission.
ASU spokeswoman Lauren Hutchins said there had been 36 redundancies since the sale to Internova, and consistent delays in fortnightly payments had prompted a further 160 employees to resign over the past 10 weeks.
"Employees are still waiting for their pay packet for the past fortnight, which is now late. We were negotiating with management about payment on Friday," Ms Hutchins said.
She said the union believed Internova Travel planned to implement redundancies under the General Employment Entitlements and Redundancy Scheme, which was less generous than the conditions accorded to former Ansett workers.
"We were not made aware of the subsequent sale of Traveland, and if we had been we would have asked the same questions about workers' entitlements that we did in the negotiations with Internova and the Ansett administrators," Ms Hutchins said.
New administrator Richard Albarran, of Hall Chadwick, said the franchise network of 270 centres would continue to trade as a buyer was sought for the 104 ticket outlets.
"We sympathise with the difficult situation the franchisees and 553 Internova Travel employees have encountered since the Ansett collapse," Mr Albarran said.
"We are also aware of the difficult situation in which this places customers. We ask them to be patient as we work through the issues."
When Internova MCI salvaged Traveland from the assets of the collapsed Ansett, it announced its intention to expand the travel agency.
After Internova bought Traveland for an undisclosed sum 10 days after Ansett's collapse, Ansett administrator Andersen took on about $25million of liabilities.
Mr Albarran said Traveland would keep trading and he expected an outcome within 28 days.
Traveland was sold by the administrators of Ansett, who accepted some $25M of liabilities to sell it, then that Company sold it again, now it is in trouble again, and the administrators of Ansett still have this $25M liability.......
(QUOTE)
Traveland in strife after botched sale
By Sophie Morris
28nov01
FOR the second time in less than three months, Traveland, a former subsidiary of Ansett, was placed in voluntary administration yesterday, jeopardising 553 jobs and travellers' plans.
It emerged yesterday that Internova MCI, the technology company that bought the travel agency from the Ansett administrators on September 24, sold it two weeks after winning the furious bidding war with several other travel industry players.
Internova company secretary Tony de Govrik said a group of shareholders called the Australasian Investment Company bought the travel agency on October 8 after some of Internova MCI's industry backers withdrew.
The return to administration came as no surprise to the staff, whose past four pay cheques were delayed, prompting the Australian Services Union to take the owners to the Industrial Relations Commission.
ASU spokeswoman Lauren Hutchins said there had been 36 redundancies since the sale to Internova, and consistent delays in fortnightly payments had prompted a further 160 employees to resign over the past 10 weeks.
"Employees are still waiting for their pay packet for the past fortnight, which is now late. We were negotiating with management about payment on Friday," Ms Hutchins said.
She said the union believed Internova Travel planned to implement redundancies under the General Employment Entitlements and Redundancy Scheme, which was less generous than the conditions accorded to former Ansett workers.
"We were not made aware of the subsequent sale of Traveland, and if we had been we would have asked the same questions about workers' entitlements that we did in the negotiations with Internova and the Ansett administrators," Ms Hutchins said.
New administrator Richard Albarran, of Hall Chadwick, said the franchise network of 270 centres would continue to trade as a buyer was sought for the 104 ticket outlets.
"We sympathise with the difficult situation the franchisees and 553 Internova Travel employees have encountered since the Ansett collapse," Mr Albarran said.
"We are also aware of the difficult situation in which this places customers. We ask them to be patient as we work through the issues."
When Internova MCI salvaged Traveland from the assets of the collapsed Ansett, it announced its intention to expand the travel agency.
After Internova bought Traveland for an undisclosed sum 10 days after Ansett's collapse, Ansett administrator Andersen took on about $25million of liabilities.
Mr Albarran said Traveland would keep trading and he expected an outcome within 28 days.
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Just heard an interview on the radio, now all sorts of people are bringing up this very close relationship I mentioned between the administrators and the ACTU..... maybe they read PPRuNe....
Apparently the administrators attended an ACTU dinner recently, and were greeted as heroes of the union movement.....
Any ex Ansett employees PLEASE be careful, make sure they are acting in the interests of the creditors, including yourselves...
I AM NOT ACCUSING ANYONE OF ANYTHING, so Danny and Woomera can rest easy.. but PLEASE PLEASE be careful.
Apparently the administrators attended an ACTU dinner recently, and were greeted as heroes of the union movement.....
Any ex Ansett employees PLEASE be careful, make sure they are acting in the interests of the creditors, including yourselves...
I AM NOT ACCUSING ANYONE OF ANYTHING, so Danny and Woomera can rest easy..
but PLEASE PLEASE be careful.