Reg Ansett - Takeover and Consolidation of ANA 1957-1969

Takeover and Consolidation of ANA 1957-1969

On 18 January 1957, Sir Ivan Holyman, managing director of ANA, died at Honolulu. ANA had only kept going because of Holyman's determination not to give up. The five British shipping companies that owned the airline had been trying to get out for several years. The ANA board tried to get the Commonwealth to buy the airline and merge it with TAA, however, their asking price was considered ludicrous.

Reg Ansett saw his opportunity. He made an offer of £3 million ($6 million) which the ANA board promptly rejected. Questions were asked about where Ansett would obtain the funds. There were stories about backing from two major oil companies. Finally, the ANA board, desperate by this time, accepted a new Ansett offer, 10 per cent above his original bid. The ailing ANA operation was taken over by Ansett Transport Industries to create a new national airline: Ansett-ANA. Ansett was now in the big time, but he still had to make Ansett-ANA competitive with the government airline, TAA, which was much better managed and had a superior aircraft fleet.

Ansett acquired ANA's fleet of Douglas DC-6's and acquired six Vickers Viscounts in order to better compete with TAA. After the acquisition, Reg Ansett suddenly became a firm supporter of the two-airline policy. It became more restrictive after the passage of the Airlines Equipment Act in 1958 prescribing what aircraft each airline could buy and much else besides. Reg Ansett had advocated the act to stop TAA from buying French Caravelle aircraft which would have been the first jets imported into Australia.

During the late 1950s and 1960s, Ansett purchased a number of regional airlines including MacRobertson Miller, Guinea Airways, and Butler Air Transport. Ansett also offered services to New Guinea. In 1964, Reg Ansett would import the first Boeing 727's following a coin toss with the managing director of TAA as to which company would import them first. In 1968, Reg Ansett changed the name of Ansett-ANA to Ansett. By 1969, Ansett had become Australia's leading domestic airline and its market share would rise as high as 55%.

Reg Ansett expanded his business interests into television in the 1960s. In April 1963, his Austarama Television company was granted a television license to operate Melbourne's third commercial television station ATV-0, starting constructing studios in Nunawading a few months later. ATV-0's first official broadcast was on 1 August 1964. Ansett expanded his television interests to become a major shareholder in Universal Telecasters, licencees of TVQ-0 Brisbane, in 1965 and buying out the station entirely in 1970.

Reg Ansett was knighted in 1969. At that point, he was managing director of Australia's biggest airline and the biggest transport company in the southern hemisphere. Because of its regional services, Ansett was the world's biggest operator of Fokker Friendships.