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Ansett Australia
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Ansett Australia Pty Ltd, or Ansett as it was commonly known, was a major Australian airline group, flying domestically within Australia and to destinations in Asia at its height in 1996. In 2001 the airline was placed into administration and subsequently liquidation. Ansett operated for 66 years and 11 days after its first take off from Hamilton in Western Victoria.
HistoryBeginningsThe company was started by Sir Reginald Miles Ansett in 1935 as Ansett Airways Pty. Ltd. This was an offshoot of his road transport business which had become so successful it was threatening the freight and passenger revenue of Victorian Railways. This led the state government to legislate to put private road transport operators out of business. Reg Ansett countered by establishing an airline as aviation was under control of the national government and beyond the reach of the state government.
Ansett's first route was between Hamilton, in western Victoria, and Melbourne, the state capital, operated with a Fokker Universal monoplane. The rapid success of the airline led Ansett to float the business in 1937. As the route network expanded, Ansett Airways imported Lockheed Electra aircraft. During World War II Reg Ansett opted to suspend all scheduled services in favour of more lucrative work for the USAAF. After the war Ansett battled to re-establish his domestic routes using war-surplus Douglas DC-3s, converted from C-47s and a motley collection of smaller airliners.
At this time, the Australian domestic airline travel sector was dominated by Australian National Airways (ANA), established in 1936 by a consortium of British-financed Australian shipowners. The Chifley Labor government was determined to establish a state-owned airline to operate all domestic and international services. It was eventually thwarted in this aim by the High Court of Australia, and so it established Trans Australia Airlines (TAA) to operate in competition with ANA.
Towards a duopoly
Ansett Airways remained a bit player as TAA and ANA battled for supremacy in the 1940s and 1950s. TAA, being better managed and having better aircraft, had driven ANA to the verge of bankruptcy by 1957. Ansett operated around the big two, maintaining budget fare interstate operations with DC-3s and later Convair CV-340s. The airline was backed up by extensive road transport operations, including Ansett Freight Express and Ansett-Pioneer Coaches, as well as the Ansair coach-building operation.
The Menzies Liberal government, while supporting TAA because of the excellent dividends it paid to the government, wanted to avoid TAA having a monopoly on domestic services if ANA collapsed, as seemed likely. The only alternative, as it transpired, was for Ansett to buy out the ANA operation. The ANA directors fiercely resisted this initially, but eventually succumbed to Ansett's offer of 3.3 million pounds for their airline. Ansett's bid had a number of financial supporters, most prominent of these being the Shell Company. Douglas Aircraft was also concerned about ANA's demise, as TAA had ceased to be a customer for their aircraft. The new entity was called Ansett-ANA, the name it retained until 1968.
Ansett-ANA's excellent profit record was largely courtesy of the Menzies government's 'Two Airlines Policy' which propped up Ansett-ANA and clipped TAA's superior marketing efforts. The policy effectively blocked any other domestic interstate operators by way of a ban on importation of aircraft without a government licence. From 1957 until the 1980s Ansett and TAA operated as virtual carbon copies of each other, operating the same aircraft at the same times, to the same destinations, with by present standards grossly inflated fares, which were identical.
Reg Ansett then set out to ensure no other competitors could rise up to challenge his airline, as he had done with ANA. He took control of Adelaide-based Guinea Airways (renamed Airlines of South Australia) and Sydney-based Butler Air Transport (renamed Airlines of New South Wales). The takeover of Butler was achieved with covert support from the Menzies government and by Ansett engineering his employees' purchases of Butler shares. He then flew the employees to a general meeting in Sydney and forced a vote in favour of selling out to Ansett.
Ansett-ANA was profitable courtesy of government support, but also because of Reg Ansett's parsimonious ways. Ansett-ANA operated from terminals around the country that were best described as spartan.
Following the takeover of ANA, Reg Ansett lobbied the government to block TAA's purchase of Sud Aviation Caravelle jet aircraft. He was concerned about his airline's ability to finance equivalent jet aircraft, and the major engineering leap required to go from an all-piston fleet direct to pure jet aircraft, TAA had been operating prop-jet Vickers Viscounts since 1954, and so had expertise in jet technology. Ansett was successful in convincing the government to authorize the importation of more Viscounts and the new Lockheed L-188 Electra. This action delayed the introduction of pure jet aircraft to Australian skies until 1964, when the Boeing 727-100 began flying.
Expansion beyond domestic aviation
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.
Ansett expanded into New Zealand in 1987 through its subsidiary Ansett New Zealand after the New Zealand government opened its skies to the airline. After the Australia government reneged on an agreement to reciprocate, Air New Zealand tried to acquire a share of Qantas, but was not allowed. Instead it bought a 50% stake in Ansett Australia (without managerial control) for A$540 million in 1996. Ansett Australia then had to divest itself of Ansett New Zealand to avoid creating a monopoly.
Ansett commenced international service on 11 September 1993 to Bali, Indonesia. In 1994, it commenced service to Osaka and Hong Kong. Ansett commenced Jakarta Service on 12 January 1996. On the 8 June 1997, Ansett commenced flights to Shanghai. Later, Seoul, Taipei and Kuala Lumpur flights were suspended.
Demise
Air New Zealand, previously a 50% shareholder, acquired full ownership of Ansett in February 2000, buying out News Corporation's stake for A$680 million, outbidding Singapore Airlines's A$500 million bid. This was widely viewed as a mistake. Monash University aviation economics academic Keith Trace commented "... by taking it on, they ensured that their own airline was in terrible danger. That was a dreadful mistake. They were taken for a ride." Ansett became more of a drain than an asset. This was difficult for Air New Zealand to support because Ansett was the larger airline, with more employees, more aircraft, and more financial overhead.
The Australian government then changed the rules to allow foreign airlines to fly domestic routes. Competition from Qantas and a succession of start-up airlines, top-heavy and substantially overpaid staff, an ageing fleet and grounding of the Boeing 767 fleet due to maintenance irregularities left Ansett seriously short of cash, losing $1.3 million a day. Ansett's main issue was the costs it incurred at running each leg; for every $1 of revenue, 10 cents was profit compared to Qantas' 60 cents for the same amount . Air New Zealand attempted to cut Ansett's costs whilst maintain a constant level of revenue. This did not work, as the cost cutting hurt Ansett, with the notable incidents being the grounding of planes in Christmas 2000 and Easter 2001. Ansett was thus unable to compete with the low cost carriers and Qantas, who were able to run at a loss on some routes, as they could not maintain revenue while cutting their costs, which included laying off staff. A deal made in April 2001 for Ansett to purchase Virgin Blue was repudiated by Virgin chief Richard Branson in August, and Singapore Airlines then reneged on its July offer to inject over $500 million into Air New Zealand and Ansett. In early September 2001, as the trouble worsened, the New Zealand government prepared to rescue Air New Zealand (eventually buying 83% of the company for NZ$885 million), but the Australian government refused to fund Ansett.
Air New Zealand placed the Ansett group of companies into voluntary administration with PricewaterhouseCoopers on 13 September 2001. In the early hours of 14 September, the administrator determined that Ansett was not viable and grounded the fleets of Ansett and its subsidiaries Hazelton Airlines, Kendell, Skywest and Aeropelican. Customers and employees had no warning of the stoppage in operations. Everyone was being told in the days leading up to 14 September that flights would continue on schedule. Ansett employees did not find out until they showed up for work at dawn that day, and thousands of passengers were left stranded. More than 16,000 people found themselves out of a job, making this the largest mass job loss event in Australian history. It was alleged by the then administrators that Air New Zealand had engaged in asset stripping of the airline as well as charging of its fuel costs due to AirNZ failing to hedge its fuel costs thus leaving it susceptible to major fluctuations in fuel charges during 2000 . This claim was angrily denied by then AirNZ Chief Executive Officer Ralph Norris who noted his company intended to mount a vigorous defence against the allegations.
After receiving a federal government guarantee, Ansett resumed limited services between major cities on 1 October 2001, utilising only the Airbus A320 fleet. This was referred to as 'Ansett Mark II'. Attempts by Ansett's Voluntary Administrators to re-engage Singapore Airlines to consider a role in resurrecting Ansett through a meeting on 6 October 2001 resulted in SIA agreeing to play a consultancy role in this effort. In November 2001 Ansett creditors voted in favour of the Tesna consortium led by Melbourne businessmen Solomon Lew and Lindsay Fox, to purchase Ansett. The plan included very reduced staff numbers and new aircraft. Fox and Lew said they had received no support from the government for their bid, thus withdrawing their proposal. This agreement, although well advanced, collapsed in February 2002.
With no other saviours, Ansett ceased operations permanently at 2359 on 4 March 2002, with the very last commercial flight, AN152 from Perth to Sydney, operated by A320-211 VH-HYI, touching down a little after 6am on the 5th of March. "It's an end of an era, an end of a great Australian company and the staff now are faced with unemployment after this flight." said Captain Geoff McDonald, who piloted the final Ansett flight in.
By this point, the administration of the company had transferred to newly formed insolvency firm KordaMentha. The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) began an investigation of whether Ansett had gone on trading while insolvent, and eventually determined in July 2002 that it would be too expensive and difficult to proceed with an action which would, in any case, need to be many separate actions on behalf of individual creditors rather than just one. Laid-off Ansett workers were eventually paid most of their entitlements, partly from an $A150 million compensation package offered by Air New Zealand in return for having the ASIC enquiry dropped, but mostly by an $A10-per-seat levy imposed by John Howard's government on Australian airline passengers.
AdministrationThe Ansett Australia administration is being conducted in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia by KordaMentha Pty Ltd.
The process of administration of the companies' assets continues to this day with employees receiving $A667.7 million out of entitlements estimated at $A766.4 million (or about 90c 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. The Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 aircraft fleets ultimately found new owners and randomly departed Australia between March of 2002 and December of 2006. The two Boeing 747 aircraft that were leased from Singapore Airlines were reclaimed within weeks of the collapse and returned to Singapore. The more modern Boeing 767-300 aircraft, of which Ansett had two, were reclaimed by the lessors in the following months, while two new delivery Boeing 767-300 aircraft which arrived too late to enter service with Ansett, departed soon after. Most of the older Boeing 767-200 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, as were many of the British Aerospace BAe 146 aircraft. As of 2008, the remains of a BAe 146 sit derelict in Brisbane, and a somewhat intact but inoperable BAe 146 remains in Perth, although neither of them are still owned by Ansett. One lone 767-200, the ex VH-RMF survived the cull, was sold and continues to fly in the United States as a charter aircraft.
More recently, employees of the former airline have received an additional $AUD 16.4 Million in entitlement payments after the sale of over $AUD 22 Million of assets, including aircraft and aircraft parts. According to media reports, there are still in excess of 217,000 items and two properties belonging to the airline remaining for sale.
FleetThe Ansett Australia fleet as of 2001 was made up of the following aircraft:
- Airbus A320 x20 (VH-HYA to HYL) & (HYN,O,Q,R,S,T,X,Y)
- BAe-146 x18 (VH-EWM,R,S) & (JJP,Q,S,T,U,W,X,Y,Z)
- Boeing 737-300 x23 (VH-CZA to CZX)
- Boeing 747-400 x2 (VH-ANA & ANB)
- Boeing 767-200 x9 (VH-RMD to RMH) & (RMK,L,M,O)
- Boeing 767-300 x4 (VH-BZF,BZL,BZI,BZM)
- Bombardier CRJ-200 x12 (Operated by Kendell)
- DeHavilland Twin Otter x4 (Operated by Aeropelican)
- Fokker 50 x9 (Operated by Skywest)
- Fokker F27 x1
- Fokker F28 x4 ** - None operational at time of collapse.
- Saab 340 x16 (Operated by Kendell and Hazelton Airlines)
- Fairchild Metro 23 x7 (Operated by Kendell and Hazelton Airlines)
Historically one of the most unusual aircraft that was operated by Ansett was the Douglas DC-4 / C-54 oversized freighter conversion ATL-98 Carvair from the 1960s. 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.
ServicesAnsett Australia offered travellers a range of services:
Golden Wing ClubGolden Wing Club was the airport lounge service owned and operated by Ansett. Members received a bi-monthly magazine called "Travelling Life", as well as many other features. Golden Wing Club Lounges were located throughout Australia in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Canberra, Cairns, Darwin, Gold Coast and Hamilton Island. Ansett also ran international Golden Wing Clubs at Sydney and Perth, with an added "First Class" section of the Club for those travelling International First Class from 1994-1998. Lounges were for a time, located in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch with members being able to access all Star Alliance Lounges as well. Many of the former Golden Wing Clubs are now occupied by Virgin Blue as their member lounge.
Ansett Executive LoungeThe Ansett Executive Lounge, also known as "Ansett Pass" was an exclusive airport lounge service owned and operated by Ansett. Membership was via invitation only, and offered opulence and luxury to that of the worlds finest five star hotels. As membership was quite select, the lounges were significantly smaller than that of Golden Wing Clubs. Executive Lounges were located throughout Australia (Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Canberra and Perth) and New Zealand (Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch).
Global RewardsGlobal Rewards was Ansett Australia's Frequent Flyer Program from 1991 to 2001. It was formerly known as "Ansett Frequent Flyer". Points could be used for services from Ansett Australia and their partners including flights, upgrades, holidays, hotel stays and car rentals. Diners Club was a significant financial services partner in Global Rewards. Points held at the time of the airline's collapse lost their value as no other airline took over the program as had taken place with the collapse of some other airlines.
Chauffeur DriveAnsett offered a limousine service, for those wishing to hire for journeys to and from the airport to the CBD in Adelaide, Brisbane, Cairns, Melbourne and Sydney. It also offered airport-to-suburb service in Melbourne and Sydney.
Valet ParkingAnsett offered a valet parking service in major Ausralian (and New Zealand) airports. This also offered the convenience of kerbside check-in, and even car cleaning for additional cost.
Capital ShuttleAnsett's Capital Shuttle operated between Sydney and Canberra. This service mainly used Saab 340 and Bombardier CRJ-200 aircraft, with small use of A320 and 737 aircraft mostly in peak periods. The Capital Shuttle service was also given a dedicated gate lounge for its services at Sydney Airport.
Air CargoAlso known as Ansett Air Freight during it's time, Ansett ran a significant freight operation which specialised in the transport of items too large for normal carriage, along with heavy-freight contracts with numerous suppliers and contractors.
Sponsorship Ansett Australia was one of the major sponsors of the AFL, holding the naming rights to the AFL pre-season competition, the Ansett Australia Cup. It was also a major sponsor of Waverley Park/VFL Park. The logo was visible around the stadium.
Ansett was also a Major Sponsor of Australian Cricket, with the Ansett Australia Test Series a prominent fixture of the Australian summer. Ansett's logo (called the StarMark) appeared on all players' training and game shirts, as well as around the boundary and on the field during Test Series.
It also sponsored soap opera Neighbours in the late 1980s; and the sleeve/major sponsor of the Brisbane Broncos National Rugby League team from 1996-2001.
Ansett Australia was the official airline of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.
DocumentariesDocumentaries about Ansett and the company's background include Air Australia: War in suites and The Ansett Story. Books have also been written, including Ansett: The Collapse and Ansett: The Story Of The Rise And Fall Of Ansett 1936 2002.
Related compaines Ansett Worldwide Aviation Services (AWAS) Ansett Worldwide Aviation Services (AWAS) or simply Ansett Worldwide is one of the world’s largest commercial jet aircraft leasing companies. It was Ansett Australia's subsidiary and leasing arm from 1985 until February 2000.
It was sold to an affiliate of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter in 2000 for close to USD$600 million. At the time of sale, AWAS had a leasing portfolio of 105 aircraft valued at USD$4 billion, with 47 airlines. The Ansett name was retained as it was instantly recognisable in the global aviation industry.
Ansett Flight Simulator Centre The Ansett Australia Flight Simulator Centre located in Melbourne, had continued trading under administration, following the company's insolvency as it was one of the few Ansett businesses that could operate profitably, independant of the airline. An agreement was reached by the Deed Administrators in October 2004 for it's sale to Aviation Training Australasia Pty Ltd. The sale included the business, related buildings, land and the Ansett owned Flight Simulators.. Nineteen former Ansett Australia employees jobs were saved in the sale, and Aviation Training Australasia elected to operate the centre under the trading name of Ansett Flight Simulator Centre, dropping the "Australia" off the end of Ansett, but retaining the well recognised Ansett Star Mark logo, reflective of Ansett's last livery.
In April of 2008, it announced that it was undergoing a major expansion and will be getting simulators for the current-generation Boeing 737, Fokker 100, Beechcraft King Air and Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia, as well as a second Airbus A320 simulator due an extension to centre’s existing building.
John Holland Aviation Services (JHAS) With the demise of Ansett airline operations in 2002, the engineering services business, formerly known as the Ansett Australia Maintenance Base located at Melbourne Airport, was retained under the name of Ansett Aviation Engineering Services (AAES), primarily to care for the Ansett aircraft held in storage having mandatory ongoing maintenance, and also for other airlines supplying third party maintenance. Through five years of administration, AAES continued to operate despite Ansett Australia no longer trading.
New business was secured and the engineering skills base continued to grow. The AAES business was acquired by the John Holland Group in June of 2007 under the banner of John Holland Aviation Services (JHAS).
As part of the sale to John Holland Group, 155 AAES staff and management had the opportunity for ongoing employment.
Holland Aviation Services (JHAS) is a division of the John Holland Group, one of Australia's largest and most diverse specialist contracting businesses. It is the only heavy aircraft independent MRO in Australia.
List - Ansett New Zealand, a defunct airline, originally a subsidiary of Ansett Australia
- Kendell Airlines, subsidiary of Ansett Australia
- Hazelton Airlines, subsidiary of Ansett Australia
- Aeropelican, former subsidiary of Ansett Australia
- Skywest Airlines, former subsidiary of Ansett Australia
- Ansett Aviation Engineering Services
- Ansett Aircraft Finance Ltd
- Ansett Australia and Air New Zealand Engineering Services Ltd
- Ansett Aviation Equipment Pty Limited
- Ansett Equipment Finance Ltd
- Ansett Worldwide Aviation Services (AWAS), an aircraft leasing organisation which used to be a subsidiary of Ansett Australia
See also
External links Administration
History
Businesses
Employee Information and Support Groups
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