Airlines & transport
Ansett and the carriers that ran out of runway.
- ArticleAnsett Australia: the full rise and fall of a national airline
From Reg Ansett's single-plane service in 1936 to the administration that stranded 16,000 workers in 2001 — the definitive story of how Australia's second airline was built, sold and ultimately broken.
- ArticleAnsett's 2001 collapse: the job losses, stranded passengers and the entitlements fight
When Ansett grounded its fleet in September 2001, roughly 16,000 workers lost their jobs overnight. What followed was one of Australia's messiest corporate wind-downs.
- ArticleCompass Airlines: the low-cost challenger that crashed twice
In the early 1990s, Compass Airlines twice tried to break the Ansett–Australian Airlines duopoly and twice ended in administration. Here's how it happened.
- ArticleHow Air New Zealand took full control of Ansett — and what it cost both of them
Air New Zealand's acquisition of full ownership of Ansett Australia looked like a trans-Tasman masterstroke. It ended in one of the largest corporate collapses in Australian history.
- ArticleTwo airlines, one sky: the policy that shaped Australian aviation
For four decades, two airlines flew every domestic route under a regulatory framework so rigid it determined what planes they flew. Here's how it worked — and what broke it.
- ArticleVirgin Australia's 2020 collapse: how administration saved the airline
Virgin Australia's voluntary administration was Australia's biggest airline failure since Ansett. Here's how Bain Capital ended up owning it.