ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
“Fuck those Kiwi bastards,” he said.
“I will never forget what you did to us.”
In February of 2001, the Air New Zealand Group acquired 100% of the Ansett Group after buying out News Corp. It was the end of the thinking man’s Qantas as the nation knew it.
Over the next 12 to 18 months, the Kiwis proceeded to gut Ansett and use it to prop up their own business. Air New Zealand attempted to cut Ansett’s costs while expecting to maintain the same level of revenue. This did not work, as the cost cutting hurt Ansett and reduced it from its former glory.
In early September 2001, as the trouble worsened after something terrible happened in America, the New Zealand government prepared to rescue Air New Zealand (by buying a massive chunk of the company instead of simply injecting taxpayer cash into it), but cut Ansett adrift.
The Howard Government also refused to bail out Ansett and the airline was placed into administration. It was the end.
That small piece of the rich tapestry of Australian aviation history isn’t lost on many former Ansett employees. Many of whom had to look abroad for work after the collapse.
“I worked for Ansett for 20 years,” said John Murray, who spoke to The Advocate from outside the Air NZ Lounge at Remienko Memorial Airpark in West Betoota.
“I loved it. It was a fantastic, service-driven airline. It was the kind of place where you knew everyone. It was like a club. When it all ended, we all ended up in different corners of the world. The pilots ended up in the Gulf. Lots of the baggage guys ended up at Qantas and Virgin. Heaps just retired or retrained. The engineers were OK, they can find work anyway. But the worst thing was the seniority aspect,”
“We all had to start at the bottom where we ended up. All to save the face of the New Zealand Government. Their GDP is less than the market cap of Commonwealth Bank. They’re just Wagga Wagga-like with sharp mountains. They must be putting prozac in the water instead of fluoride. Sorry, that’s a bit rude,”
“It just shits me.”
More to come.
