Ansett: Encyclopedia II - Ansett - History

Ansett - History

The company was started by Reg Ansett in 1935 as Ansett Airways Pty. Ltd. The business floated in 1937, and was contracting for the USAAF during the war. The post-war years were marked with numerous acquisitions, including Australian National Airways (1957). The airline prospered during the second half of the 20th century, especially in the 1980s. However a number of substantial investments performed badly, including a share in the US airline America West Airlines (which filed for bankruptcy, but survived) and its Hamilton Island resort (which went into receivership). Ansett also paid millions of dollars for the right to be official airline of the Sydney 2000 Olympics, an investment generally regarded as unwise. This destabilised the financial position of the company considerably.

One of the most unusual aircraft that was operated by Ansett was the DC-4 / C-54 outsized freighter conversion ATL-98 Carvair. Three of the airlines own DC-4s were delivered to the United Kingdom for conversion by Aviation Traders Limited, the company run by Sir Freddie Laker as Managing Director.

Air New Zealand, previously a 50% shareholder, acquired full ownership of Ansett in February 2000, buying out News Corporation. Competition from Qantas and a succession of start-up airlines, top-heavy and overpaid staff, an ageing fleet and grounding of the Boeing 767 fleet due to maintenance irregularities left Ansett seriously short of cash. Ansett became a drain on its parent and Air New Zealand itself was ultimately bailed out by the New Zealand Government. It placed the Ansett group into voluntary administration on 13 September 2001. A day later, the administrator decided that Ansett was not viable and grounded the fleets of Ansett and its subsidiaries Hazelton Airlines, Kendell, Skywest and Aeropelican.

After receiving a federal government guarantee, Ansett resumed limited services between major cities on 1 October 2001. This was referred to as 'Ansett Mark II'. In November 2001 Melbourne businessmen Solomon Lew and Lindsay Fox, under the name 'Tesna', reached agreement to buy most of Ansett's assets. This agreement, although well advanced, collapsed in February 2002. With no other saviours, Ansett ceased operations permanently on 4 March 2002.

The process of administration of the companies' assets continues to this day with employees receiving $A544.7 million out of entitlements estimated at $A766.4 million (or about 71c in the dollar) and it is expected that another $A85.1 million will be raised. Ansett's administrators, KordaMentha, told creditors that it was unlikely that much more money would be realised, due to the depression of the global aviation industry after September 11 reducing the value of aircraft from $A300 million to $A70 million. Some aircraft in heavy maintenance were broken up as it was not cost-effective to restore them to an airworthy state. Most of the Boeing 767 fleet remained parked at Melbourne until late 2004, when they were sold and flown to the United States to be broken up into spare parts.

Currently, Australian business man Terry Byrt is in the process of resurrecting the Ansett Airways name as a local carrier based in Townsville, Australia. It is planned to fly to Gladstone, Mackay, Hamilton Island, Townsville, Mount Isa, Cairns, Brisbane, and Horn Island. The new airline is supposed to take off November 2005. The company is not affiliated with Ansett Australia.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki