Ansett staff unlikely to seek buyout under Air NZ

By Yoke Har Lee

Ansett Australia's employees are not interested in extending its proposal to buy half of the company if Air New Zealand is in full control.

Iain Lang, union official and buyout steering committee member of Ansett employees, said: "There is very little purpose in that. Air NZ has set objectives about what [it is] going to achieve. I've got priorities about what I want to do. They are definitely not going to be met if Ansett is under Air NZ's ownership."

However, if the Foreign Investment Review Board rejects Air NZ's full ownership, Ansett employees' offer to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp still stood, Mr Lang said. "We haven't withdrawn the proposal from News Corp."

Ansett employees, with the help of investment advisers Deutsche Bank and Keilin and Co, in January offered to take over Ansett. But Air NZ had first rights to buy the other half of Ansett.

Aviation analysts in Australia and Singapore expect Air NZ to be faced with major potential row with the Ansett employees' union with the job losses expected to happen once the two airlines are integrated.