anat0l
Enthusiast
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2006
- Posts
- 11,666
Note that the following is simply a relatively naive account. Remember that I really didn't know much about the world of aviation beyond sitting in a seat on a plane until I discovered AFF... but here is my living experience and thoughts at the time...
I was too young at the time to care about flying as much as I do now - being just a senior at high school.
Having known about Qantas, Ansett, Australian Airlines and Compass (as well as a few others) as I was growing up, I'd been used to seeing Qantas and Ansett planes about. As for on TV, airline news was never really a big deal unless someone was killed. (Unlike now where everything airline related - even a go around - can make the news. Vale quality journalism.) I do remember flying Qantas before, but not Ansett. We never travelled much in Australia, and internationally Ansett didn't do much until quite late in their tenure before their demise.
With Ansett having joined the Star Alliance, I thought they were leading the charge on the world in Australia. Qantas only followed suit a couple of years after. All of this made me think we had two great airlines, strong as could be. Then, of course, there was Ansett as the official carrier of the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
The first signs I thought something was odd was when it was announced that Ansett was being taken over by Air New Zealand. Well, there was the suspension of Ansett's international forays, but I didn't think too much of those. Now I was just a young student with no clear idea about the aviation industry, but knowing that we had two proud national carriers (ones that carried pax internationally) at the time - Qantas and Ansett - it befuddled me how something like this could happen. Why would Air New Zealand want to buy one of our airlines, and why would one of our proud own want to be owned by the Kiwis? (Then again, Australians are good at selling their own shirts - viz. Vegemite and a whole bunch of other Australian items that aren't really Australian any more).
Then came the groundings. And the staff lay-offs. Not great news, especially when the busy periods of travel rolled around. The new ad campaigns featuring Vanessa Amorosi's song, Absolutely, only seemed to work temporarily.
When Ansett collapsed, it was a surprise to me. Probably that I was still getting over the 9/11 "surprise", but the whole thing that Ansett seemed to be going down the gurgler all but appeared to sneak up on me, perhaps more than just me. The idea that everything just stopped there and then (except planes flying in the sky) was unusual. Couldn't imagine anyone going to the terminal and just being told, "You're not flying. We're finished. Go home." But that was what was happening.
What I never understood then and now was how the federal government was - by "force" - obligated to ensure the entitlements of all Ansett employees, which was eventually passed down to the flying public (with a rather inconsequential charge in retrospect). The top people at Ansett had no accountability in the whole affair (just like every other corporate collapse - the board always swindles their full "entitlement" before everyone else). Air New Zealand appeared to just wash its hands of the airline like emptying the garbage. Of course it wasn't the fault of the AN employees that they lost their entitlements, but I didn't like the way that it was portrayed in the media that, "If our company can't pay our entitlements, then it's up to you (referring to the government and in general the Australian population) to do so!" as if it was somehow the general public's fault that AN went under or we had a pseudo-legal obligation to help them out. In the end, what the government did was a goodwill gesture and not law (from what I could imagine, I could be wrong, as there may be such a provision).
I saw AN Mark II fail miserably as it had no support. I saw AN passengers with millions of frequent flyer miles see red and vent on TV, though I had to wonder who exactly were they blaming with such a rant. I watched Virgin Blue get into hot water for not hiring former AN FAs on account that they were either not young enough, and/or not pretty enough. I saw Richard Branson joke with the media that he was going to get in bed with Ansett, then remark "I'm only joking!" and then after demonstrated his earnestness by ripping up the paperwork there and then. Perhaps a false thought then, but I was scared that since Ansett had collapsed, the Australian aviation sector was in some sort of disarray, and that Qantas may have followed suit. Luckily (perhaps), they didn't.
That was me and my understanding of Ansett in 2001. I never got a chance to fly them myself. A lot of people said they were a great airline. In hindsight, if they had the integrity to be invited to start with the Star Alliance, they were probably right. Why did they fail if everyone loved Ansett? Their failure seemed to come about by a couple of tipping point events, but it seemed unfair that those mere events should be their undoing. Was it a veil of a great airline masking a mismanaged and ill-invested one?
I was too young at the time to care about flying as much as I do now - being just a senior at high school.
Having known about Qantas, Ansett, Australian Airlines and Compass (as well as a few others) as I was growing up, I'd been used to seeing Qantas and Ansett planes about. As for on TV, airline news was never really a big deal unless someone was killed. (Unlike now where everything airline related - even a go around - can make the news. Vale quality journalism.) I do remember flying Qantas before, but not Ansett. We never travelled much in Australia, and internationally Ansett didn't do much until quite late in their tenure before their demise.
With Ansett having joined the Star Alliance, I thought they were leading the charge on the world in Australia. Qantas only followed suit a couple of years after. All of this made me think we had two great airlines, strong as could be. Then, of course, there was Ansett as the official carrier of the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
The first signs I thought something was odd was when it was announced that Ansett was being taken over by Air New Zealand. Well, there was the suspension of Ansett's international forays, but I didn't think too much of those. Now I was just a young student with no clear idea about the aviation industry, but knowing that we had two proud national carriers (ones that carried pax internationally) at the time - Qantas and Ansett - it befuddled me how something like this could happen. Why would Air New Zealand want to buy one of our airlines, and why would one of our proud own want to be owned by the Kiwis? (Then again, Australians are good at selling their own shirts - viz. Vegemite and a whole bunch of other Australian items that aren't really Australian any more).
Then came the groundings. And the staff lay-offs. Not great news, especially when the busy periods of travel rolled around. The new ad campaigns featuring Vanessa Amorosi's song, Absolutely, only seemed to work temporarily.
When Ansett collapsed, it was a surprise to me. Probably that I was still getting over the 9/11 "surprise", but the whole thing that Ansett seemed to be going down the gurgler all but appeared to sneak up on me, perhaps more than just me. The idea that everything just stopped there and then (except planes flying in the sky) was unusual. Couldn't imagine anyone going to the terminal and just being told, "You're not flying. We're finished. Go home." But that was what was happening.
What I never understood then and now was how the federal government was - by "force" - obligated to ensure the entitlements of all Ansett employees, which was eventually passed down to the flying public (with a rather inconsequential charge in retrospect). The top people at Ansett had no accountability in the whole affair (just like every other corporate collapse - the board always swindles their full "entitlement" before everyone else). Air New Zealand appeared to just wash its hands of the airline like emptying the garbage. Of course it wasn't the fault of the AN employees that they lost their entitlements, but I didn't like the way that it was portrayed in the media that, "If our company can't pay our entitlements, then it's up to you (referring to the government and in general the Australian population) to do so!" as if it was somehow the general public's fault that AN went under or we had a pseudo-legal obligation to help them out. In the end, what the government did was a goodwill gesture and not law (from what I could imagine, I could be wrong, as there may be such a provision).
I saw AN Mark II fail miserably as it had no support. I saw AN passengers with millions of frequent flyer miles see red and vent on TV, though I had to wonder who exactly were they blaming with such a rant. I watched Virgin Blue get into hot water for not hiring former AN FAs on account that they were either not young enough, and/or not pretty enough. I saw Richard Branson joke with the media that he was going to get in bed with Ansett, then remark "I'm only joking!" and then after demonstrated his earnestness by ripping up the paperwork there and then. Perhaps a false thought then, but I was scared that since Ansett had collapsed, the Australian aviation sector was in some sort of disarray, and that Qantas may have followed suit. Luckily (perhaps), they didn't.
That was me and my understanding of Ansett in 2001. I never got a chance to fly them myself. A lot of people said they were a great airline. In hindsight, if they had the integrity to be invited to start with the Star Alliance, they were probably right. Why did they fail if everyone loved Ansett? Their failure seemed to come about by a couple of tipping point events, but it seemed unfair that those mere events should be their undoing. Was it a veil of a great airline masking a mismanaged and ill-invested one?
)
