Australian Airlines
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Australian Airlines was a low-cost airline based in Australia, servicing Australian and Asian destinations. It was an all economy, full service international leisure carrier and was an wholly owned subsidiary of Qantas Airways, although run independently of the mainline carrier. Its main base were at Cairns International Airport (CNS), with a secondary hub at Sydney airport (SYD).
The airline ceased operations on July the 1st 2006 due to low profits Qantas decided to shut down Australian Airlines in favour of having Jetstar as its second carrier. QANTAS are operating services to replace Australian Airlines popular routes.
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 1993. 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 April 11th, 2006, Geoff Dixon, CEO of the Qantas group, announced that the group would be focusing on the Qantas and Jetstar brands, and as such Australian Airlines would cease operating under its own brand by July 2006. The airline's aircraft will be painted back into the Qantas livery, but will continue to be operated by Australian Airlines under a wet lease agreement.
Services
Australian Airlines operated scheduled services to the following destinations (at January 2005):
- Australia
- *Cairns (Cairns International Airport)
- *Darwin (Darwin International Airport)
- *Gold Coast (Gold Coast Airport)
- *Melbourne (Melbourne Airport)
- *Perth (Perth Airport)
- *Sydney (Kingsford Smith International Airport)
- China
- *Hong Kong (Hong Kong International Airport)
- Indonesia
- *Denpasar, Bali (Ngurah Rai Airport)
- Japan
- *Nagoya (Chubu Centrair International Airport)
- *Osaka (Kansai International Airport)
- *Sapporo (New Chitose Airport)
- Singapore (Singapore Changi Airport)
Terminated Destinations
- Japan
- *Fukuoka (Fukuoka Airport)
- Malaysia
- *Kota Kinabalu (Kota Kinabalu International Airport)
- Taiwan, Republic of China
- *Taipei (Chiang Kai-shek International Airport)
Fleet
The Australian Airlines fleet consists of 5 Boeing 767-338ER (at April 2006).External links
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