David Knibb/BRISBANE
With Ansett Australian now a wholly owned subsidiary of ANZ and Ansett New Zealand changing its name to Qantas New Zealand, the parties are moving on to the next phase - to integrate the changes.
Unions and rural communities lobbied Canberra hard over the ANZ acquisition and the Foreign Investment Review Board imposed the following conditions on Ansett:
• Ansett Australia and long-haul sister company Ansett International must remain Australian corporations;
• Headquarters must remain in Australia;
• Ansett International must operate most new overseas routes from Australia;
• Highly skilled jobs must stay in Australia;
• Significant cuts in rural air services are to be avoided for at least three years;
• At least a quarter of Ansett's board members must be Australian.
ANZ has accepted the conditions. Even before they were announced, there had been hints that ANZ would favour having Ansett International operate more overseas routes from Australia where customers identify with the brand. Ansett has even suggested that ANZ transfer some of its own Australia-Asia routes over to Ansett International.
Before Canberra's decision, Ansett was in the process of preserving rural routes by turning many of them over to its regional subsidiary, Kendell Airlines, to serve with a new fleet of Bombardier CRJjets.
ANZ's next steps are to find a replacement for chief executive Jim McCrea, who resigned when ANZ completed the Ansett takeover; to decide whether to proceed with a proposed NZ$150 million ($75 million) debt issue to help finance the acquisition and to review the need to renew Ansett's fleet. Those needs have been shelved for several years while the airline's ownership has been under discussion.
Meanwhile, the former Ansett New Zealand will become a Qantas franchisee. While it will operate as Qantas New Zealand, the Australian major is taking no stake in its domestic partner, although the two companies have maintained close commercial ties for years.
The final ownership change could come at any time, perhaps prompted when Singapore Airlines finally completes the purchase of another 16.7% of ANZ, bringing its stake to the 25% maximum. That move had only been waiting for the Ansett deal to go through.
Source: Airline Business
