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Reginald Myles Ansett was born in Inglewood, Victoria, on 13 February 1909. After WW1, Ansett's father established a knitting factory in Camberwell and Ansett gained qualifications as a knitting-machine mechanic at Swinburne Technical College.
However, Reg went north to work as part of a Northern Territory survey team. On returning to Victoria, he ran a bus service between
Ballarat and
Maryborough with a second-hand Studebaker.
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Reg Ansett obtained a pilot's licence in 1926 (No. 419). However, his ventures into aviation did not start until Victorian Transport Minister Robert
Menzies persuaded the Victorian Parliament to pass a bill prohibiting competition with Victoria Railways which meant that the bus service could no longer trade. He started an air service between
Hamilton and
Melbourne trading under the name of Ansett Airways Pty. Ltd in February 1936. His first aircraft was a six-
seat Fokker Universal. Ansett showed good timing as the Federal Government started subsidising airlines. Reg Ansett won the
Brisbane to
Adelaide air race in 1937.
During World War II, Ansett was forced to abandon all of its regular
routes except the route between
Hamilton and
Melbourne. However, he obtained plenty of charter work especially for the US armed forces based in Australia during the Pacific War. This work ensured that Ansett had plenty of cash after the war.
In 1943, the Federal Department of Civil Aviation released a discussion paper Post-war Reorganization: Proposal Outline of a Plan for Civil Aviation. It led to the passage of the National Airlines Act which established a government owned airline Trans Australia Airlines (TAA) competing on major
routes with ANA while other airlines such as Ansett flying on regional
routes. This policy became known as the Two-airline policy.
Both the coachline and road freight businesses were highly successful businesses and by 1962, Pioneer Coaches was running 245 buses throughout the country. In 1956, Ansett established an airfreight business using Carvair nose-loading aircraft.
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On 1 November 1968, the ANA was dropped and henceforth the airline became Ansett Airlines of Australia. During the 1974 cyclone disaster in
Darwin, Ansett again came to the aid of
Darwin residents, providing
services and ground support, to assist in the evacuation of residents, while the city was rebuilt. The airline continued under the control of Reginald Myles Ansett, who was knighted in 1969. Late 1979, when after having defeated earlier takeover attempts, TNT and News Corporation each gained a 50% shareholding in Ansett Transport Industries. Sir Reginald passed away in 1981, just a few days prior to Christmas.
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Following a new color scheme and new aircraft purchases, Ansett continued to operate throughout the 80s and 90s until News Corporation sold its shareholding in Ansett to Air New Zealand in June 2000 thus giving Air New Zealand total control, after having previously acquired the TNT shareholding back in 1996.
What followed of course is history. Air New Zealand after only fifteen months in full control, during which time its financial situation was hurting deeply, cut Ansett and its many loyal employees, adrift on Wednesday 12 September 2001, thus bringing a rather undignified end to what had been a truly great Australian airline.
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