Australian Airlines

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For Australian Airlines (1986-1993), see Trans Australia Airlines.

Australian Airlines

IATA AO	ICAO AUZ	Callsign AUSTRALIAN
Founded		2001
Ceased operations		28 July 2006
Frequent flyer program		None
Fleet size		5 Ceased Operations
Destinations		13 Ceased Operations
Headquarters		{{{headquarters}}}
Key people		{{{key_people}}}

Australian Airlines was a full-service airline based in Australia, servicing Australian and Asian destinations between 2001 and 2006. It was an all economy, full service international leisure carrier and was a wholly owned subsidiary of Qantas Airways, although run independently of the mainline carrier. Its main base was at Cairns International Airport (CNS), with a secondary hub at Sydney airport (SYD).

The airline ceased transmission under its own livery on 28 July 2006 but continued to operate flights for Qantas under a 'wet leasing' agreement. This means Australian Airlines operated flights for Qantas using its own crew / cost base but under the Qantas brand. Qantas decided to discontinue the public use of the Australian Airlines brand in favour of having Jetstar Airways as its leisure carrier. Qantas and Jetstar is operating services to replace Australian Airlines' routes, with Jetstar International introduced in late 2006 to help expand the Qantas Group's international presence.

1 History
2 Services
3 Fleet
4 External links
5 References

[edit] History

The airline was established in 2001 and started operations on 27 October 2002, reusing the name Qantas gained when it merged with former Australian domestic carrier Australian Airlines in 1994. Its initial network of flights concentrated on leisure tourism between Queensland and Japan. Subsequent expansion brought on other leisure destinations throughout Southeast Asia. In 2005 Australian Airlines managed to earn a SKYTRAX "4 Star Airline" rating, despite its "low cost airline tag". However, by 2006, rising fuel costs and dropping passenger numbers caught up with the airline. On 12 April 2006 Geoff Dixon, CEO of the Qantas group, announced that the group would be focusing its two-brand strategy, Qantas and Jetstar brands, and as such Australian Airlines brand would cease to exist from July 2006. The airline's aircraft have been painted back into the Qantas livery and returned to Qantas short-haul for use on their domestic and trans-tasman routes. Alternative B767-300 aircraft (in Qantas two class configuration) were supplied to Australian Airlines by Qantas, for them to operate under a wet lease agreement in the interim. Australian Airlines continued to operate under this agreement, servicing several routes to Japan including twice daily flights to Narita (Tokyo) and also flights to Manilla, Philippines. Qantas closed down the Australian Airlines operation completely at the end of August 2007.