iscoverThis story from the Australian Aviation archives is from September 2011, when Geoffrey Thomas wrote about the collapse of Ansett Australia 10 years after the airline was placed into administration on September 12 2001 and eventually folded.
As with an aircraft accident, the crash of Ansett 10 years ago this month was not caused by one factor but a conspiracy of many, that in the end created an industry worst practice airline operating in one of the world’s most liberal airline markets.
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Mick D
says:My god, this is a thorn in EVERY FO in Australia’s side. Listening to some Cpt crap on about how good Ansett was and how this and that was the fault of so and so…… my God, kill me now.
They seem to forget that they made more money that we do now, cheaper houses and god know what better treatment than now, so STFU about this …. let it DIE PLEASE!!!!!
James
says:They’ll retire soon Mick. Just look out the window and nod.
Different time, different industry.
Ben
says:They were a great airline. At the end of the day though what really led to their demise was not being able to compete on a level playing field after QF took over Australian Airlines. You basically had an established international airline acquire an established domestic airline. Ansett had no International airline, so had to start from scratch. They probably went for better partnerships than QF but didn’t have their own metal to compete with the established network of QF. So even though they probably had arguably better overall customer service than QF, they were at a disadvantage competitively.
In the early 1980s they completely renewed their fleet. They needed to do the same in 2000 and to make sure is was the same size and scale as QF to be able to compete. Also decide on one fleet manufacturer type. If they went with Boeing, could have ordered many 747-400s and/or 777-300ERs for international services. 737NG and 767-400ER for domestic and regional international. Q400s and 717 for a regional fleet to compete with QFlink (Maybe call it Ansett Link or revive Ansett Express brand – and merge Hazelton, Kendall, Flightwest, Skywest etc)
If an Airbus fleet, they could have ordered the A380 and A330 for international (today re-equipping with the A350) Then could have had the A319/A320/A321 for domestic with the A330 used domestically as needed. Regional fleet could be a mix of ATR and A318.
Maybe eventually buying VA as a LCC offshoot to compete with Jetstar
It’s fun to be an amateur fleet planner. In reality though a lot of money was required for what Ansett needed. Sadly at the end, Ansett didn’t have any.
I clearly remember the animosity that Air NZ was facing in Australia at the time of the collapse. However I’m glad they’ve gone on to be such a quality, profitable airline (Perhaps a glimpse at what Ansett could be like today, had they survived).
Henry
says:wait I thought the A380 only came out 2005? 2008? after the collapse???
Brett Newling
says:Two things that have been left out of this otherwise comprehensive article.
Firstly, when Air NZ took over the first 50% of Ansett, they agreed to allow News Corp to continue to manage the airline. So competent management from Air NZ was not allowed, while a media company continued the history of Ansett mismanagement.
Secondly, when the Australian government approved the sale of the second 50% to give total control to Air NZ, they imposed three main conditions. Air NZ could not relocate any head office functions to New Zealand. Air NZ could not review the Ansett route structure and drop any of Ansett’s many unprofitable services and routes. Air NZ had to maintain the Ansett workforce nimbers at pre-takeover levels. The three things that any prudent new owner would obviously do to a new acquisition.
Air NZ were that desperate to buy Ansett that they agreed to all these restrictions.
And so the seeds of Ansett’s inevitable collapse were sown.
Rocket
says:Yes, but the seeds were also in the 80s with the media assets and property/trucking assets being taken away, millions more than necessary spent on the wrong aircraft and renovating islands that were not core business.
Then the disposal of the DC-9 fleet and how it was done, allegedly with about 10% of the value from the sale coming back to Ansett when the aircraft were worth 10 times more on the second hand market.
When tough times came, there were no media assets, coach building, instruments manufacturers, trucking/removalist assets and property left to sell, it had all miraculously disappeared between 1979 and when Air NZ finally took control of the second 50%.
If Australia had had stronger corporate laws in the 70s and 80s, many of Ansett’s non core assets would have been still there and could have been sold to get it and Air NZ out of trouble. It’s obvious who took it to the ICU, Air NZ paying too much just meant the ventilator had to be switched off OR to put it another way, it was taken to the edge of the cliff by others, the price Air NZ paid and the drag on the balance sheet from that pushed it off the cliff.
What should have happened is that the NZ Government should have been forced to bail out both companies. They would have made a lot of money but they decided to only look after NZ and unfortunately, NZ had AN very comprehensively ring-fenced legally so no entitlements could be extracted as legally, there was no one responsible for AN.
franz chong
says:ask lachlan murdoch’s father why he sold his share of ansett/news limited to air new zealand.
Rocket
says:Because there was nothing of value left to News.
Mark
says:Ansett was a very poorly managed airline with inefficient staff – even going back to the days of Australian Airlines – Australia was unique in being the only country where the government carrier was both better run and it’s staff harder working.
Cutting out the rose tinted glasses Ansett died due to in being not run like a business.
Christopher
says:I beg to differ, Mark. Ansett may have been poorly managed but the front line staff did their best, by what training they were given. As well, the Unions at during that time were inflexible. This caused Management to take their staunch stance against the staff in retaliation, rather than everyone dropping their egos and negotiating a win/win situation. In the end, everybody lost. Will Management ever learn that their most important commodity is their employees? This is part of the reason why airlines such as Southwest, UPS and FedEx have been so successful.
Gavin
says:Well if fat arse Abel’s was not put in charge after Reg Ansett him self sold, then they would not have had a lot of the problems they ended up with, like over employing with way way to many on their payroll system, with all the extra entitlements, and payroll tax just killing them at the rate of knots .And of course fat arse was a real union arse as well ,so that was not in Ansetts favour!! Both Abel’s and Reg argued with each other!
Then the bastard acquired all those rotten BAE 146-200s and -300s and they just cost Ansett an absolute bloody fortune in constant breakdowns, general downtime ,over the years they had them they costed Ansett hundreds of millions of dollars ,just to keep them operating before they put any backsides in their seats. And you know why the bastard bought them, because another airline had ordered them ,then cancelled the order so they were left sitting there in the UK in stock, so what did he do? He spent a fortune of the company’s money on 11 of these piles of junk. I know for a very fact that the fleet management in Melbourne wanted to get rid of them but they could not make the decision due to the circumstances they were in . And of course due to that ,later on in years they had a whole ,humungas load of other issues with Singapore Airlines and AirNewzealand which of course were sorry for ,for havering anything to bloody do with!! In one way or another from the inside out, and the outside in , unfortunately they had it all going against them. Sep 11, then on the 12th, then AirNewzealand s handling of the first Administraters they appointed , then only after that they got some decent administrators which had by far the largest administration task in the world, it lasted years until one of the last BAE 146 trash cans were sold .
Yet after all these years fortunately we still have some of their hanger ons working for Virgin till this point and they are incredibly still there at this point, so it just shows and stands out in force that a lot of Ansetts staff that were there and hung in there for the love of doing the jobs, not just because of high pay, when they were back at Ansett.
Ok give their former staff all the credit they deserve because it was not their fault that their employer was creating an overserviced situation, and bringing them into outright bungleup . A fuckin crook chief and some bloody bad directors ,not being hard nosed enough and getting weigh to much in their pockets, was a fare bit of their problems!!
PB
says:Compass One and Compass Two wer mentioned.
I was a consultant to both, and Compass One failed due to management ineptitude and subtle things like Qantas giving them gates at the end of the terminal, which passengers disliked. The odds were against Compass One and Brian Grey. Compass Two failed from malfeasance, the promoter/managing director doing gaol time.
Ansett? The work rules were impossible. Yes, I read the platitudes of management, wrong fleet mix (which was true), but don’t shed tears for the rank and file – they went on strike at the drop of a hat, were generally hostile to their customers, were overpaid, and customers generally found Ansett to be unreliable. The work rules were too favourable to staff, especially the pilots, and the 16c per passenger seat kilometer meant that the carrier was doomed. Bankruptcy was the only way to clean it up.
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Ben
says:@Henry – the A380 may not have flown until 2004/5 and didn’t enter service until 2007. However it was actually officially launched with first orders in 2000. From memory I think QF placed their order in November 2000. So in theory Ansett could have launched a similar order at the same time. My musings about their fleet planning are more to do with imagining what they would have looked like had they survived and had the required capital injection when they needed it. Had they survived and thrived – would they have collapsed today with the COVID downturn? Very possibly yes – or a similar situation to what VA is now in – if a buyer could be found. Don’t forget Ansett Mark II was tantalisingly close to getting off the ground in 2002 – sadly not to be.
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