Creditors of Air Australia have voted unanimously to wind up the failed carrier at a second meeting in Brisbane this morning.
The appointed administrator KordaMentha had made the recommendation to put the carrier into liquidation, saying it was the "only realistic option available".
In a report issued to creditors prior to the meeting, the administrator said "it became quickly apparent" that there was minimal interest in purchasing the airline or its air operator's certificate as it was making huge losses.
It added that there are about six interested parties with "reasonable sale prospects" for its engineering business, which has a hangar and some spare parts.
"The administrators however have abandoned plans to sell the engineering business. Interested buyers dropped off because there is a A$ 1 million [$964,000] a year lease attached to the land and hangar at Brisbane airport," a KordaMentha spokesman said when contacted after the meeting.
"The administrator will now go ahead and liquidate ground services equipment, spare parts and tools."
In the report, the administrator had estimated that winding up the company is expected to result in a small surplus available to priority creditors. There will likely be no dividend to unsecured creditors.
KordaMentha has also collected A$420,979 in debts and negotiated with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to potentially recover funds held within the pool for flights available before the suspension.
The spokesman could not give an estimate on the amount likely to be recovered from the sale of the airlines' assets, but said "it's not going be much", given that all its aircraft were leased.
The vote for liquidation also triggers a process that allows the airline's 350 employees to start receiving basic entitlements guaranteed under a government scheme.
Investigations into the carrier found that it made losses of A$27 million and A$37 million in 2010 and 2011 respectively. Its downfall was largely the result of an inadequate utilisation of aircraft, its "significant" infrastructure investment" and running costs, which were not supported by a strong revenue base, and a lack of working capital.
At the first creditors meeting on 29 February, it was revealed that the carrier had debts of up to A$90 million and less than A$200,000 in its bank accounts when it suspended all services on 16 February.
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ) was also revealed as the largest creditor. It is owed at least A$20 million. Employees, meanwhile, were owed A$8 million in unpaid wages, about A$5 million of which could be recovered through a government scheme.
The carrier was launched in 2009 as Strategic Airlines and took over troubled Australian charter operator OzJet in the same year.
It obtained both an Australian air operator's certificate and a French one for European services, although it had some difficulties with the latter.
The airline's losses started in 2010 when it lost its defence contract and decided to become a low-cost carrier operation.
Air Australia operated a fleet of leased Airbus A330s and Airbus A320s.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
