Australian Airlines was a full-service airline based in Australia, servicing Australian and Asian destinations between 2002 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). 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. The airlines lost a lot of money. |