Strategic Airlines Pty Ltd, trading as Air Australia Airways was an Australian airline flying domestic and international scheduled passenger flights. Strategic Aviation, a sister company, flew
air charter
Air charter is the business of renting an entire aircraft (i.e., chartering) as opposed to individual aircraft seats (i.e., purchasing a airline ticket, ticket through a traditional airline).
Regulation
Charter – also called air taxi or ad h ...
flights using the Air Australia fleet or other leased aircraft. Both companies had their head office in
Hendra, a suburb of Brisbane.
Air Australia halted all flights and was placed into voluntary
administration
Administration may refer to:
Management of organizations
* Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal
** Administrative assistant, Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an admini ...
on 17 February 2012,
and into liquidation on 23 March 2012.
History
Founded in 1991 as an air freight broker and trading as Air Charter Logistics, Strategic Aviation Pty Ltd was established by Executive Director, Shaun Aisen. The company specialised in the transportation of oversize or unique cargo, chartering flights on
Antonov An-124
The Antonov An-124 Ruslan (; russian: Антонов Ан-124 Руслан, , Ruslan; NATO reporting name: Condor) is a large, strategic airlift, four-engined aircraft that was designed in the 1980s by the Antonov design bureau in the Ukrain ...
s,
Ilyushin IL-76
The Ilyushin Il-76 (russian: Илью́шин Ил-76; NATO reporting name: Candid) is a multi-purpose, fixed-wing, four-engine turbofan strategic airlifter designed by the Soviet Union's Ilyushin design bureau. It was first planned as a comm ...
s and
Boeing 747
The Boeing 747 is a large, long-range wide-body airliner designed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States between 1968 and 2022.
After introducing the 707 in October 1958, Pan Am wanted a jet times its size, t ...
freighters. In 2002, Michael James joined the company as an Executive Director and equal shareholder. With a background at
Ansett
Ansett Australia was a major Australian airline group, based in Melbourne, Australia. The airline flew domestically within Australia and from the 1990s to destinations in Asia. After operating for 65 years, the airline was placed into adminis ...
and air charter, James assisted the company to successfully bid for the
Australian Defence Force
The Australian Defence Force (ADF) is the military organisation responsible for the defence of the Commonwealth of Australia and its national interests. It consists of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), Australian Army, Royal Australian Air Forc ...
Troop Lift Contract. With this diversification, the trading name was dropped and the company rebranded as Strategic.
![Strategic Airlines Airbus A330-200 Prasertwit](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Strategic_Airlines_Airbus_A330-200_Prasertwit.jpg)
This contract was initially serviced with a leased
Airbus A330
The Airbus A330 is a wide-body aircraft developed and produced by Airbus.
Airbus conceived several derivatives of the A300, its first airliner in the mid-1970s. Then the company began development on the A330 twinjet in parallel with the A340 ...
from Portuguese Airline
HiFly utilising Australian crews. Former
OzJet
Ozjet Airlines Pty Ltd was a scheduled and charter airline with its head office in Tullamarine, Melbourne Australia, operating within Australasia from Melbourne Airport, Sydney Airport, and Perth Airport. In 2008 the airline was sold to He ...
operations director David Blake was appointed CEO in 2008 to assist with the expansion of the airline side of the business.
The first Australian-registered aircraft, an
A330-200
The Airbus A330 is a wide-body aircraft developed and produced by Airbus.
Airbus conceived several derivatives of the A300, its first airliner in the mid-1970s. Then the company began development on the A330 twinjet in parallel with the A34 ...
, was delivered in July 2009, and the Australian
Air Operators Certificate
An air operator's certificate (AOC) is the approval granted by a civil aviation authority (CAA) to an aircraft operator to allow it to use aircraft for commercial purposes. This requires the operator to have personnel, assets, and system in pla ...
was awarded soon after in September. This was complemented by the third A320 in December 2009.
In June 2009 Strategic purchased the troubled airline
OzJet
Ozjet Airlines Pty Ltd was a scheduled and charter airline with its head office in Tullamarine, Melbourne Australia, operating within Australasia from Melbourne Airport, Sydney Airport, and Perth Airport. In 2008 the airline was sold to He ...
along with its staff, its
Air Operators Certificate
An air operator's certificate (AOC) is the approval granted by a civil aviation authority (CAA) to an aircraft operator to allow it to use aircraft for commercial purposes. This requires the operator to have personnel, assets, and system in pla ...
and the Perth–Derby RPT route.
The route was serviced by a chartered
Fokker 100
The Fokker 100 is a regional jet produced by Fokker in the Netherlands.
The Fokker 100 is based on the Fokker F28 with a fuselage stretched by to seat up to 109 passengers, up from 85.
It is powered by two newer Rolls-Royce Tay turbofans, an ...
from
Alliance Airlines
Alliance Airlines Pty Limited based in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia with operational bases in Adelaide, Cairns, Melbourne, Perth, Townsville, Darwin and Rockhampton. Alliance Airlines owns and operates a fleet of Fokker and Embraer aircra ...
until Strategic's first Australian-registered
Airbus A320
The Airbus A320 family is a series of Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus.
The A320 was launched in March 1984, Maiden flight, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air F ...
was introduced in early 2010.
![Air Australia A320-200](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Air_Australia_A320-200.jpg)
In February 2011 Executive Director, Shaun Aisen severed his ties with the company leaving Michael James the sole owner. Six months following Aisen's departure from the company six other members of staff left the company as well, namely the chief executive, the chief operating officer and the commercial manager. The main reason for the sudden exodus was opposing views on how the company was heading under the leadership of James. A former senior-staff member stated, "when there were two owners, they were almost opposite poles, which worked to the advantage of the business." Aisen's conservative approach was perceived to have balanced out James's different approach to the running of the company.
In ''
The Sydney Morning Herald
''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...
'' on 2 April 2011, it was first claimed that the airline would change its name by the end of the year, in order to create a brand more identifiable with its Australian roots. The name change was confirmed in August 2011, with the airline also planning on becoming a low-cost carrier and announcing service from Brisbane and Melbourne to Honolulu to begin in December 2011.
Administration
![N549CL](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/N549CL.jpg)
On 17 February 2012 at 1:30am the Strategic Group's directors decided that the Strategic group of companies including Air Australia, Strategic Engineering Australia, and Strategic Aviation, would be placed into voluntary administration. This was brought about because the fuel supplier refused to refuel an aircraft in Phuket, Thailand on 16 February 2012 due to mounting outstanding payments. The airlines' directors appointed
KordaMentha
KordaMentha is an Asia-Pacific advisory and investment firm that provides specialist consulting, forensic, real estate, restructuring and investment services. The business was formed in April 2002 by Mark Korda and Mark Mentha. KordaMentha has ...
as
administrators
Administrator or admin may refer to:
Job roles Computing and internet
* Database administrator, a person who is responsible for the environmental aspects of a database
* Forum administrator, one who oversees discussions on an Internet forum
* N ...
.
Air Australia suspended all flights leaving approximately 4,000 passengers stranded in Denpasar (Indonesia), Phuket (Thailand) and Hawaii (USA), as well as domestically in Australia. These passengers were advised that they would have to make their own travel arrangements at their own expense.
KordaMentha found the airline owed creditors up to $90 million but had only $1 million in assets as much of its equipment was leased. Administrator Mark Korda said the airline was "not saleable" and was likely to go into liquidation. The collapse put 300 employees out of work.
On 24 March 2012, the creditors voted to place Air Australia into liquidation.
Services and destinations
The Strategic Aviation group held licences for
air charter
Air charter is the business of renting an entire aircraft (i.e., chartering) as opposed to individual aircraft seats (i.e., purchasing a airline ticket, ticket through a traditional airline).
Regulation
Charter – also called air taxi or ad h ...
and
air freight
Air cargo is any property carried or to be carried in an aircraft. Air cargo comprises air freight, air express and airmail.
Aircraft types
Different cargo can be transported by passenger, cargo or combi aircraft:
* Passenger aircraft use the ...
brokerage services under the ''Strategic Aviation'' banner, which also utilised aircraft from Air Australia and other wet leased aircraft when required.
Air Australia operated scheduled services to:
In June 2011 Strategic Airlines applied for rights to fly to the United States with services to commence in September 2011. Strategic announced a 2 per week Brisbane to Honolulu and a 2 per week Melbourne to Honolulu service, to begin on 14 December 2011.
Additionally, in May 2011, Strategic Airlines lodged an application with the Australia-based International Air Services Commission for 1,911 seats weekly on the Australia to China route (no specific routes were mentioned). In its application, the Airline requested the capacity be made available from September 2011 onwards. On 6 June 2011, the International Air Services Commission granted Strategic Airlines 1,911 seats each week on the Australia to China route and media reports suggested that the airline was planning on 3 times weekly services from Brisbane to Beijing or Shanghai.
Air Australia had applied to operate four services per week to Vietnam to begin in March 2012 from the IASC.
Fleet
![Air Australia Airbus A320 Nazarinia-1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Air_Australia_Airbus_A320_Nazarinia-1.jpg)
As of May 2010, the fleet consisted of:
Strategic's orders for Airbus A330-200s consisted of six for expansion in new markets of China and India from both its Melbourne and Brisbane bases.
and two for Australian market set for delivery in late 2011 and early 2012.
Controversies
In 2010, it was reported that two Australian Defence officers working in the unit responsible for a $30-million-a-year contract to fly Australian troops to the Middle East were providing information during the tender process to Strategic Airlines, which was later declared the winner. The two members, Captain David Charlton and Warrant Officer Class Two John Davies, then working for the ADF's No 1 Joint Movement Group, were reported to have passed information to company executives about "... key tender dates and Defence's preferred aircraft for the Middle East flights". Defence Department investigations found no case to answer for the two Defence officers involved and declared all parties had complied with fair and transparent tender and evaluation processes. Both officers were subsequently employed in senior management positions in Strategic.
References
External links
*
{{Airlines of Australia
Defunct airlines of Australia
Airlines established in 2009
Airlines disestablished in 2012