East-West Airlines (Australia)
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East-West Airlines was an Australian regional airline founded in Tamworth, New South Wales in 1947. It flew between major regional centres and connected regional centres to capital cities. For a period in the 1980s it also attempted to compete with major airlines Ansett and Australian Airlines on inter-capital routes. The Australian aviation industry was highly regulated at the time and East-West was not able to fly directly between major capital cities. This was due to the 'Two Airline policy' which protected the two major airlines resulting in a duopoly. East-West did offer services between major cities via regional centres however. Routes included Melbourne to Sydney via Albury or Sydney to Brisbane via Newcastle. East-West was able to significantly undercut the major airlines on price giving them the only real competition they had had for years.
East-West primarily flew Fokker F27 prop-jets and F28 jets. It was acquired by Ansett in 1987. It continued to operate as a separate entity until 1993 when its operations were absorbed by Ansett.
